


The Old Republic: Skywalker Origin

by MinWalker



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games), Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars: Skywalker Saga
Genre: Based mostly on my characters, Based mostly on the story of the Old Republic games, Fusion of Star Wars Legends and Disney Canon, Galactic Civil War, Galactic Empire, Going back and forth on time from the Old Republic to Galactic Empire, Kreia Darth Traya, Psychometry, Revan - Freeform, Some drastic changes actually, The Galactic timeline is respected but I've made my own alterations to fit it with my characters, The Jedi Exile - Freeform, This is me messing around with the Legends EU, Vitiate The Sith Emperor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2019-12-14
Packaged: 2021-02-01 01:28:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 45,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21314152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinWalker/pseuds/MinWalker
Summary: Darth Vader learns about the origin of his name with the help of a random spectre.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 3





	1. Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the prologue change I promised. It's honestly been very hard for me recently and I've tried my best to do as perfect as I could, so I'm sorry If this doesn't live up to your expectations. I tried to do Vader as In Character according to the comics and so forth, so I hope this pleases you. I'm very sorry for grammatical errors. And sorry for the changes of POV, it'll give you whiplash.  
This is new for me but I'm excited. I hope it entertains you as much as it did to me when I wrote it. 
> 
> ***Heavily based on the Marvel Comics of Darth Vader and the Star Wars 2015 Comics. If you want to understand this a bit better, you should read both. Anyway I do explain enough I believe.  
***I've mixed the Old Republic Legends into the Canon Comic of Vader. I love the Marvel Comics, they're amazing, and the EU is also incredible so I just wanted to put both things together and just indulge myself. I hope you don't mind. 
> 
> I apologise for any mistakes, please give me your critics to get better. Thank you so much.

Unforgiving and relentless. Not even the sun could shed light to its volcanic surface. The magma illuminated enough for one's eyes to behold its deceivingly beautiful landscape but the pure energy of the star simply couldn't reach such lethal planet. From afar, one could see the star struggling, barely a little spot in the mist of the thick clouds of smoke that engulfed the planet's skies. It proved a point to whoever dared to stand outside though. 

  
Bubbling streams of magma leisurely slithered in between rocky banks, hot and a hellish red, where droids protected by shields, collected ore as commanded. The polluted air dried all moisture in the surface and the heat irradiating from the lava baked anything from a person's skin to a droid's armour. Lethal just as the evil aura that wrapped the sole soul dragging its burnt corpse away from the current of molten rock. Not a human anymore, just a breathing carcass that tried to save himself however he could. A scorched body, a corrupted mind and a broken heart. The mirror of the planet's condition. Destroyed by greed and conflict. Once upon a time, he used to be a Jedi, a man who fought for justice and righteousness, but as his eyes tainted a sickly yellow, he became the shell of his real purpose in life. And just as his mind bent to the Dark Side, his eyes began to perceive things differently. At the top of the slope, the man who cried out his love for him, turned into a target. The man whom he called a father and had become his best friend, had transformed into a monster, the one responsible for his suffering and the one that had betrayed him. 

  
However, Obi-Wan wasn't the only one there watching him burn; wind sketched the frame of a woman, scarred just as the Sith and cheeks glistening by the tear tracks that had leaked her eyes. She appeared out of thin air and it seemed as if the air had condensed enough to solidify her body. Yet she wasn't visible to anyone but the wounded man. Obi-Wan, just a spectre of his past beliefs, grabbed the other's lightsaber and left, walking away from the one thing that had become his ground and rock---his best friend. She watched the Jedi go till he disappeared out of her sight, and then headed to the fallen one. She knelt beside him and enveloped his body in a shield, protecting him from any further damage. His golden gaze landed on her. His hatred lashed out like the very storm in his mind, its tendrils singeing her clothes and her skin but she didn't move. She became the eye of his fury and she let him unleash himself. He did. His body, as badly injured as it was, survived against all odds. Incapable of even drawing breath, yet his heart continued to beat. 

  
The Emperor arrived and spotted him immediately. Impossible to miss the unnatural tornado in the lava created by his apprentice. As soon as he found him, the swirling column of air settled, and the woman walked away. He didn't even spare her a last glance, he just turned around to face his Master and closed his eyes. 

  
The insectoid eyes of the mask reflected the memory just as fresh as if he had just been through it. Both, the Sith and the woman, felt it play in front of their eyes and sensed the heat crawling on their skin. He jerked his mind away from the trance and stepped back, briefly overwhelmed. He had recognised her. How wouldn't he? Her manifestation in Mustafar signified his complete transformation, she had been there as his old self peeled off and the new one emerged. He had learnt a lot from then, from his demise you could say, but that didn't mean he wanted to relive the same again. 

  
"So", his booming voice echoed in the dead silence of his fortress' wide hall, "so you're the one who has gained the Emperor's favour". 

  
"No", she crossed her arms, "I'm just a mean to an end, Lord Vader. I've gained no favour from anyone". 

  
She could sense his agreement in the Force, his presence uncomfortably shifting under the light of her comment. It came to no shock to them though. Everyone was a pawn of the Emperor, their very existences puppeteered by his will and mandates. 

  
"And what is that end?" He asked. For seconds, the flames of Mustafar flickered in his eyes but the spectre knew those flashes didn't come from him, it came from her. From the trauma of watching a man burn and turn into a monster, helpless to do anything. 

  
"To teach you Psychometric. The rebels have to be found quickly, so he thought that perhaps your tracking could improve by adding another technique to your already various set of skills". 

  
"Something tells me you persuaded him and not the other way around", if his mask could deepen its scowl, it certainly did in that moment. It amused the spectre. He had a way to convey feelings perfectly despite the lack of expression in his mask. 

  
"What's the point, Lord Vader? I'm sure it'd be useful to you". 

  
"I'm not questioning his motives, I'm questioning yours".

  
"I just need the credits. Isn't that everybody's motive?". 

  
"No", he insisted. 

  
She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. Honestly, he was just as relentless as this horrible planet. The lava had indeed made its impression on him. Again, his mask appeared to be squeezing its eyes in suspicion. The second she stepped into his fortress, he probed her presence in the Force, tried to infiltrate one of his presence's tendrils into her shield, just to identify her, but she was strong-minded. Surely, he could break her anytime and figure out her real intentions but something told him that wasn't the way to approach this situation. His Master wouldn't have sent her otherwise. He, himself, communicated with Vader before her arrival, sustaining that her presence was almost imperative because the rebels needed to be found immediately. So if he had to humour another one of the Emperor's agents then so be it. 

  
"How do you propose to start this lessons?" He asked, dropping the previous subject. 

  
She nodded, mostly relieved.

  
"Quite simple. I just need to do a demonstration for you to understand it". 

  
"Your plan then?"

  
"I heard the Emperor is planning on sending you to Cymoon 1", he glared at her as response. She smiled at him in return. "So, let's make the best out of that visit, shall we?"

  
***  
The assault didn't come as unwanted as any other would have perceived it. To him, it was almost a pleasant surprise. The Rebels' appearance turned out to be eerily perfect. At this point, he may not need Pyschometry at all. They seemed to follow him everywhere he went, instead of running away from him. It's like they liked to put themselves on silver platter, waiting for him to slaughter the lot. 

  
The spectre didn't flinch either. He brought down the entire contraption where the Wookie was hiding but the creature got away. He tilted his head to her and again, displayed anger in the blank features of his mask. 

  
"You seem almost invisible", he said. 

  
"I'm not a target, Lord Vader. The Empire will run just fine without me". 

  
The troopers circled him and he detached his gaze from her. He ordered them to put the moon in alert, but, as per usual, the troopers informed him about the ill condition of the reactors and so forth. He disregarded all of that and again repeated his order, and that's when he felt it. That beacon in the fabric of the Force, that untrained light that unconsciously alerted everyone of his presence. For a second, a memory came to him, a face he despised so much but that once regarded him with warmth. 

  
_You have become a far greater Jedi that I'd ever hoped to be. _

  
He brushed the thought away and got on his way. If there was something that set his feet in quicker motion than ever was that Force-Sensitive pilot. 

  
"You sense _him_ too, don't you?" She asked. 

  
He nodded without taking his eyes off the front. He knew she meant someone else. The boy wasn't alone. Maybe physically he was, but he had a companion invisible to their eyes. Or at least Vader's eyes. The spectre could see the old man just fine. The latter couldn't though. Even if she had stood in front of him and waved her hand on his eyes, he'd have ignored her presence. 

  
"You seem to have a natural talent for this, Lord Vader. Your mind connected the boy with him without the need to touch any object", she explained. 

  
"Object? What---?"

  
"Ben, is that you?" The soft voice of the boy came from the hall and it made Vader abruptly stop. "Ben, he's here. Darth Vader. The man who killed my father. Who killed you". He paused for a second as if expecting an answer, "I have to face him. I've to end this". 

  
Ben did answer him but Vader, kindly as ever, decided to indulge the boy and give him what he desired. Lightsaber ignited and cape billowing, he approached him. But there's no Lord Vader without a few reproachful remarks, and the boy, just as insolent, rebutted all the sentences the Sith Lord said, blaming him for the death of his former Master. Their lightsabers barely engaged, Vader was a formidable opponent and the boy had zero to no education at all regarding duels, he just held the sabre as to defend himself but not to properly wield it. It put the weapon to shame and that irritated the Sith Lord. So much wasted talent and such an elegant sword in the hands of a child. He had no time for this. 

  
He called the lightsaber to his hand and as he insulted the deceased Master for his pitiful attempt to train the boy, he spotted the spectre standing beside him by the corner of his eyes. The lack of response from the child puzzled him.

  
"Speak quickly", Vader carried on, "or join your father". 

  
"I'd rather die than yield to you", he put on a new fabricated bravado and stood up to the Sith. 

  
Both Vader and the spectre found that entertaining. 

  
"So be it", Vader crossed both beams, prepared to behead the boy, and just before he acted, the lightsaber _whispered_ to him. It vibrated in his hands as if to catch his attention, and to his dismay, he recognised it. "Wait... I know this weapon, this once belonged to..." Suddenly the spectre gripped his hand. Her hand became his and as both tightened their grasp on the sabre, the warmth sensation of flesh returned to his arm. He didn’t have time to look at the spectre, in no time the world turned upside down. 

  
The hall's walls caved in and the floor ruffled, its cracks presenting the familiar red of magma. Vader appeared just next to a younger Obi-Wan as he grabbed his lightsaber on the ground and took it with him. Exactly as he remembered not too long ago, triggered by the presence of the female spectre. Yet this time, he didn't leave as soon as he got Vader's sabre. Obi-Wan looked back again, even leaned to him as the corpse stretched its arm as if to grab his hand, but just before he dared to make a move, he remembered his duty and turned around. The flames continued to consume not just the rotten body on the river bank, but the very Jedi who walked away from his friend. 

  
The planet's quake awoke Vader from the short trance and he immediately turned around. Just as he stepped forward, a small house erupted from the rocky ground. Vader managed to put his distance before the thing got him; and then, he heard crying, resonating inside the premises. The memory pulled him right into it, forcing him to see the same man bawling just beside the lightsaber. Vader silently observed until the memory leaned awkwardly, morphing the house into another area, this time occupied by two people standing before the blue bar of plasma of Vader's previous lightsaber. The boy, somehow younger, held the hilt tightly in his hands, his eyes twinkling at the sight of the weapon, and eager to know more. His innocent fascination could have been easily overlooked by Vader but he didn't. It struck him as familiar. But time had ran out. A hook yanked him away from the echoes of the Force and he returned to the present.

  
He felt a slight tug in his arm and realised the spectre had sunk to her knees. The Force didn’t pull them from the memories, she did. He stared at his hand for a moment and flexed his fingers, no residual sensation had lingered. He had lost the sense of touch again.

  
“Watch out, kid!” A voice came through the child's comlink and both Vader and the youngling turned to the wall opposite them.

  
The foot of a walker collapsed the wall behind them, but both avoided the debris just on time. The Sith jumped out of the way and observed the chunks of wall going through the spectre still kneeling in the floor. She seemed overwhelmed, she clearly hadn’t seen the same Vader did, whatever she did see stunned her. Not even the blasters from the troopers and the recently freed slaves barrelling through the new exit made her flinch or move out of the way. He had no time though so he got in the move. 

  
He found the boy immediately, his presence tingling in ecstasy and fright, clearly relieved to be saved but full aware that this was not over yet. Vader, then, did that one thing he had mastered after so long. He hurled his former lightsaber to one of the slaves standing next to him and skewered him right on the middle. The sabre lingered on the victim's chest for a second, sending just the right message to the boy and then Vader let it fall. The boy scrambled to it, his fingers grazing the metallic hilt, but Sith summoned it back to his hand. The boy whipped his head to him, his expression riddled with horror, as Vader intended him to be, truly afraid of him. 

  
"Kill them all, or you will answer to me". 

  
From then on, the onslaught became a rampant massacre. 

  
The boy escaped his grasp and the walker continued to step on his heels. He detained it for a couple of minutes but soon the drivers began to shoot and he had to jump out of the way, losing the other lightsaber in the process. The canons' bolts lightly damaged his helmet and unclasped it from his suit. As he got up, a stormtrooper popped to report to him something, but unfortunately, he saw Vader without the mask, and such people cannot be allowed to live. He snapped his neck with the Force and killed him. No witnesses. 

  
The moon's Overseer finally contacted Vader and informed him about the core's meltdown. The danger was imminent and they had to evacuate. If Vader could sigh for the many times he had heard the same thing, he would. Instead he put his helmet back on and commanded the man to fix everything or his head was on the line. 

  
"If this factory explodes, you had best explode with it. The rebels invaders must die, except the boy. Leave him to me". 

  
"Yes, sir!"

  
The spectre tightened her lips. If she wasn’t in such a daze due to Vader’s memories, she’d have actually enjoy all this action, but the hammering in her head prevented that. Vader shot her a quizzical look. Her act was premeditated, she interrupted him just on time to spare the child from certain death, and yet, despite her ill timing and her intention, he actually felt relieved he didn’t kill him. He had been too hasty to dismiss him, the boy might have some use to him. On another note, she proved her worth. Those memories were the very echoes of the Force coming from his lightsaber. Briefly but effective. If he could do the same with everything else then he needed that skill. So the spectre had earned her life. 

  
The walker had become a very bothersome issue, so he targeted it first. He slashed one of its legs with his lightsaber repeatedly until it broke in half and the rebels inside crashed. Vader gathered with the rest of the stormtroopers he had requested and observed again the young boy riding a speeder, shooting left and right, till he cleared a path to the trash fields for his friends who had just came out of the wrecked walker. Vader put the spectre to the test by letting this unfold. He needed to see her reaction to the rebels surviving this and the heroic acts of the boy, but as he expected, she didn't show anything at all. Her presence in the Force for moments diminished to the size of an atom, a very known technique for Jedi, so once again it made him doubt about her loyalty, but she proved him wrong again. She wasn't a Sith either, she didn't carry any darkness in her presence, she was just a Force user that dwelt in the limbo of the Force. 

  
Impressive indeed. 

  
The show was over and _that_ boy was still a pending matter he couldn't let go. Therefore, he flicked his finger at the trooper who was about to hop on a ship and knocked him down. He leapt to the vessel and zoomed out of there. The spectre waited. From afar, she spectated the entire theatrical play. The explosion and Vader walking out of the rubble as if nothing had happened to him. The boy managed to flee though. The Millennium Falcon as always picked him up just on time and soon they were out of the atmosphere. 

  
Vader's eyes followed the freighter's trajectory to the skies until they exited the planet. Those rebels, especially that trio, had become a thorn in the flesh. Impossible to catch, impossible to kill. If he could only choke them from the distance as he did to the captain who talked through his helmet's coms at the moment---if it only was that easy. However, there was a problem. He may not care for the smuggler or the princess, but that boy was strong in the Force. If he could train him, he would not only invalidate Obi-Wan's sacrifice, but he would twist that boy to be his weapon. And that's a sweet victory right there. 

  
The Force pulsed alerting a presence but not the spectre's, it was another familiar one. 

  
"The Dark Side always wins, Obi-Wan", he said to the ghost still hidden in the fabric of the Force, "you should know that by that". 

***  
At the cruiser, inside his personal chambers, Vader confronted the spectre. There were many things he had already noticed, things that he would later comment about, not yet, but there were others that did need to be disclosed and explained. He had confirmed that she had no affiliation to the Jedi nor the Sith, as he called it she was in the in limbo of the Force, but that didn't give him much to go on. He didn't have to trust her but he couldn't read her either and that was a problem for him. 

  
"You are invisible to everyone, except the Emperor and me”, he began, “why?” 

  
"I'm a ghost, a spectre as you named me", she replied.

  
"Don't test my patience, spectre, tell me the truth”, he demanded.

  
She tapped her boot on the floor for a long minute and just before his patience reached boiling point, she spoke. She spared herself from being choke just in time. 

  
"Only Dark Siders can see me. Part of the curse I received a long time ago". 

  
Her answer could be branched into two parts. One, she had been wandering the galaxy for ages, her ancient armour, heavily inspired by the Mandalorians, verified that. At the first sight of her, he figured she belonged to the Old Republic, thousands of years ago, but he didn't think it to be true since no one can live that long. But that's the second branch: she had been cursed. Perhaps her unnatural long life came from that curse, evidently uttered by a Sith who doomed her to be visible only to those who exercised the same power as the Dark sider. 

  
That intrigued him. He had never heard of a _curse_ made by a Sith that could last for this long. Perhaps he could find more about the Sith. Someone so mighty as him must have been recorded in galactic history. His name ought to be plastered somewhere, and he doubted the spectre could give him answers about the Dark Sider. 

  
"Does long life grants visions of the future?" He interrogated her. This time sarcasm plagued his voice. 

  
“Actually it does”, she confessed, “but not this time. I took my chances", she admitted. "There was no doubt the child and you would encounter, so it was just matter of getting you in range to reproduce the memories from the lightsaber. A feather touch can show you enough, and that's all I needed. So I basically just _assumed_ the situation". 

  
"How did you know he had my lightsaber then?"

  
If she had been shaken by the question, she didn't let her expression betray her. Her face remained impervious until she spoke again. 

  
"My physical condition is quite complicated. I can slip into the fabric of the Force anytime I want and travel wherever I want. The Emperor noticed this in me and tried to recruit me. I complied and so he ordered me to find more about the pilot responsible for the destruction of the Death Star, but I couldn't. The child might not be able to see me but he can surely sense me, especially if I'm too close, so I had to leave before he figured another ghost apart from Obi-Wan was spying on him. However, I did see the lightsaber. And as you might know already, I've lived a couple of hundred years, so I identified it". 

  
So the boy was the pilot and she knew who was behind the suit. That alone made him want to bury his lightsaber in her chest, but he knew that would do little to no harm at all. She survived a shower of debris, he doubted he could harm her physically. She found the pilot easily, something even he couldn't achieve. 

  
She shook her head. It wasn't hard to find Luke for her, there are many Force- Sensitive people, including Yoda and Ahsoka, but neither sent such ripples in the Force that it was almost annoying By then, the boy didn't know how to portray his feelings so he unconsciously did it in the Force and the few beings besides Obi-Wan and his Master who could sense that was her. To track the boy didn't cost her much, nor his sister for the matter. Moving to the second statement, she actually didn’t know the Sith. She knew his name before he called himself Darth Vader but not the kind of man he used to be. The only Anakin she knew was the one before her. The one who screamed so loud that it influenced the very fabric of the Force. 

  
Of course, as time went by, she gathered the pieces of his life and completed the picture, but she couldn't say she knew him. Although he brought back memories from her past. It had been a while since the last time she encountered with people so brave as the Jedi trio the galaxy admired so much. 

  
"Your blood is quite unique, Lord Vader", she confessed, her eyes staring blankly into the void, "not just because you are supposed to be part of a prophecy, but because your roots come a long way prior to your mother", she fixed her eyes on him and sighed. "_Ekkreth_". 

  
She had been brought up a slave as well then, Vader thought. 

  
It is a tradition of Tatooine's slave culture for adults to gather their children and tell them about the stories and myths of Ekkreth, a shape-shifter trickster. They believed said trickster to be their saviour that would free them from the shackles of slavery. However, she didn't refer to the myth, she meant to the meaning behind the name. The Sky Walker.

  
"Anyway, does that satisfy your curiosity?"

  
Not even close, but he let it rest there. They were about to arrive to Coruscant and he had to prepare himself for a meeting with his Master. There were a lot of things that had to be discussed with him and words were never enough for the Emperor. He couldn't deny to himself that he dreaded this meeting, but it had to be done. Once the Cruiser reached orbit, he boarded a shuttle and travelled to the Emperor's palace. He ordered the spectre to stay behind, so he went alone. 

  
As he entered his master's office, he spotted Mara Jade next to the Emperor's side, as she always was. The one special Inquisitor whose job was to protect the Emperor himself. Unnecessary to his opinion, but he couldn't question his Master. He glowered at the female for a second and then knelt before the Emperor. The latter stared at him serious but he hadn't lost all patience yet. 

  
"Well Vader, explain. What has happened now?" 

  
So the routine began. He explained, his Master sighed, then they went to see the Overseer of Cymoon 1, who failed to deal with the rebels, and finally began the scolding session. Vader tried to excuse himself, after all he was the one who warned them all about the consequences of the terror they constructed, but the Emperor wasn't having any of it. If he didn't jolt him right there was because the Emperor had a better grasp of his temper than Vader did. Also because, as Palpatine frequently remained him, he respected him, considered him his friend even. Vader was loyal to him so he reciprocated the respect, but _respect_ hadn't stop the Emperor before. His Master was up to something, only a fool would miss that, particularly after the visit of a certain someone Vader had never seen before. Still he didn't comment anything about it and just obeyed. 

  
"Tagge was the only one properly wary of the rebel's threats. It was lucky he left the station before its destruction, or I would've no one I could use", the Emperor muttered harshly and Vader understood his meaning. "He is to assume primacy, and you, Lord Vader, will act according to his will". Vader, complaint as always, nodded. "You must finish your dealings with the Hutt first. I'm sure a trip to Tatooine will be sentimental to you" Palpatine said sardonically. "You have two days, Lord Vader, do not fail me". 

  
The meeting concluded and Vader got demoted. 

  
On the cruiser, Tagge awaited for him at the bridge. As Vader walked to him, the Grand General displayed the most disgusting smug expression on his face. Vader's eyes flashed viciously behind his mask. If the General could see him, he wouldn't be smiling like that. But he let the General be. He should enjoy his status while it lasted because once the procedure is complete and Vader regained his place again, he'd proceed to complete the man's fate. 

  
The General started babbling about some trade goods they had to collect and whatever nonsense, but he dismissed the entire speech and just ordered him to go to Tatooine. It'd certainly extend the journey but he didn't care. A free day might give him enough time for the spectre to teach him something worthwhile. He had plans for her as well, if she was as slippery as she claimed to be then maybe she could help him find the boy before anyone else and discover his true identity. 

  
"That extends the journey, sir", he protested, "the engines----"

  
"---Will only be a problem if your engineers are substandard", he accused, still facing the transparisteel. The Grand General cleared his throat to speak but Vader interrupted him, "are you admitting your crew is not efficient?" The man opened his mouth again but Vader cut him off, "if so, you understand that reflects most poorly on your command". 

  
Togge agreed with Vader's terms and the latter took his leave. The spectre and his medical droid expected him inside his chamber. Both made a polite gesture at his arrival. The droid didn't actually smile but something close to happiness crossed its face. He unconsciously caressed its head and sat down. 

  
"So", he began, "I've realised I haven't asked for your name". He didn't deem it necessary before but since her demonstrations had evolved into official lessons, he thought it'd best to have a name to address her by. 

  
"Novae". 

  
That name belonged to a Sith of the Old Republic, Master of Darth Malgus, one of the few masters who outlived their apprentices, a figure she clearly had no regard for. Unless the Sith had been personally involved her in life. Vader hummed. So that Sith cursed the spectre. Well, weren't things turning to be quite interesting? 

  
"How does it work?" He veered to another subject. 

  
"Every thing in this universe has an echo of past events" she explained as she summoned a wooden box with the Force from under the communication panel. "Whether they've been directly involved in the situation or not, it can still carry the prints of a person's life. Some, infused with enough Force, can sustain memories long enough for one to even hear conversations, sense their surroundings and feel every distinct emotion through the event, or events. You experienced some of that with your lightsaber", she added as she dressed her arms with elbow-length gloves. "Now, depending on their use, the Force can converge in a single piece of a material and display you its true origins". She selected something from the box and laid it on his hands. "This is an example". It was a piece of fabric from a Jedi robes. He recognised it. However, it was quite unique, he had never seen such an elegant fabric for a Jedi tunic before. It seemed quite extravagant even. "This contains hundreds of memories for you to unravel. You just have to be careful not to get lost during your journey from one place to the other. A too powerful memory can trap your mind, never to let reality resume. It's delicate business", she emphasised. 

"Where did you get this?" He didn't conceal the disdain in his voice. 

  
"A Jedi once wore it", she said firmly. 

  
"And why are you showing me memories of a Jedi? I've no interest in them". 

  
"Well, you wanted to learn more about the one who cursed me, didn't you? Then this is her journal". 

  
Vader darted his eyes from the spectre to the piece of garment in his hand. Learning about the Sith was something he desired, he wouldn't deny it, but not to the extend of sacrificing time of his meditation to see the Jedi's past and his fall. He didn't care how he fell, he was only interested in the Sith's power. How did he curse the spectre? Was it only words or some sort of ritual as he had seen his Master done sometimes? The Sith must had had some personal grudge on the spectre or he wouldn't have condemned her like that. But once again, he did not care about that. He cared for something specific, not the overall picture. 

  
"If you want to understand the curse, Lord Vader, you have to watch from the very beginning", she said calmly. 

  
"No, I don't. Get to the point spectre". 

  
"Let's do something practical then", she said, "I'll guide you through this. You will see the flashes of certain memories, just important bits, while I see the contents and spare you from the boring life of the Jedi, all right?"

  
He had to remind himself that his Master had sent her to him. She had clearly told the Emperor the type of lessons she'd expose to him, so if the Emperor agreed to this then he had no choice but to see the memories. The spectre better be right though, he wasn't going to waste time on useless things. 

  
"Do so then". 

  
"Brilliant", she smiled and then frowned. She hesitated before touching his hand and Vader almost felt temped to grab hers and see her reaction. "If I'm to guide you, I need to take your hand", she mouthed the words very carefully, "I hope you don't mind"

  
He would have if he didn't know the consequences it brought to her every time he touched her. He extended his hand and she took a deep breath before taking it. Both waited but apparently the gloves worked, she didn't recoil. Her relief was palpable in the Force. 

  
"All right then, reach out to the Force and you should see everything". 

  
He did and instantly, the fabric showed up in his mind, dirty and old by the frequent wear but teeming with memories. For a second it bewildered him, there were many scenes playing before him and none of them made sense. He had to sort the memories out or he would end up falling into the wrong one. He had to choose carefully, preferably since the very beginning, as the ghost said, its very origin, and then progress slowly to the end. 

  
He did so as her presence coached him to map the memories. The blueprint was done in less than five minutes. It strained his mind more than he expected, but he was determined. He had now everything organised and he could finally select a decent memory to start. The furthest upper corner of the fabric seemed the best candidate. The memory had less noise than most of them and the emotions coming from it were more quiet than the rest. Seemed like the safest bet. His mind shuffled to the corner, and he jumped right into it.

  
The memory came to life in no time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took me so long to write it, jesus. I'm sure I grew some grey hairs. Sighs.  
Psychometry, in Canon, cannot be learnt, its something you're born with, but in Legends you could learn it. So I'm basically combining both things into this. I'll explain further about this.  
https://archiveofourown.org/series/286908. Slave Culture of Tatooine is based on the meta of this wonderful person. Full credits to the author. 
> 
> Also Mara Jade is here, :) I just need Luke to get his happy ending. :(  
Thanks for reading this far. Have a good day.  
Enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After the prologue, this is chapter 1. I apologise once again for the grammatical errors. I'm doing my best to edit it but I just don't have the time to proof read completely. I'm very sorry. Anyways, thanks for reading. Enjoy! 
> 
> ***Side Note: Tatooine is not the under the control of the Hutts by this point. Another corporation claimed the planet for mining purposes. Still, it doesn't do it fairly.

Hazel spotted a snowy-coloured bush and rushed to it. You will never see snow in Tatooine, let alone flora, but in a moment of impetuosity, one doesn't stop and meditate on the climate changes. If snow had fallen from the binary suns' sky, then snow it is. She lurched to the bundle of leaves, hoping it would offer her protection but instead, she bumped against a warm body and reeled backwards. She cursed under her breath, tried to straighten up but a wooden pole caught her nape before she could dodge it. The pain pulsed throughout her body like a vibroblade. She fixed her eyes on the man above her, on her employer, and braced for another abuse. But it never came. With her own peeled eyes, as her pupils enlarged, she witnessed the bush-that turned out to be a person-grab the pole before it reached Hazel's head and flung it somewhere in the desert.

  
"How dare you?" He rose his arm to slap the girl in front of Hazel but again he was interrupted. This time a hooded figure, looming behind him, caught the man's arm and lowered it. The figure moved to meet Hazel's owner and pulled his hood down. A male hybrid, younger than Hazel expected, smiled at him and spoke to him in a soft tone, a gentle one even. Hazel didn't hear their conversation, but Hazel's owner seemed pleased with the hybrid. He nodded several times as if he had just accepted a very good deal and, without a spare glance, he walked away.

  
Hazel frowned bemused at the sequence of events. What had just happened? Was she just freed? Why would Kooik, her employer, abandon her otherwise? She wanted to demand answers but she held her tongue. If there's something you are taught as a worker is to know when to speak and when to shut your mouth.

  
"Hi" the male turned his attention to her and knelt down. She scanned his eyes, tender and compassionate---characteristics she had never seen in a person's eyes before. He appeared almost human, bronze skin, blue-coloured irises and trimmed beard, framed by wavy silver hair, but the three horns, thin, short and sharp, on either side of his forehead made Hazel conclude he was a hybrid. She didn't know any species with horns like that, she had seen them on zabraks sometimes, but the man's were more like spikes. They were odd. Still, even with her scrutinising stare, the hybrid's smile never faltered and simply waited. "I'm Saul Thraayen, and my friend here is Sarisa Skyell", he introduced. She remained mute, still taken aback, and just listened. The little girl stood beside him, silent and with a discreet grin as well.

  
Her curiosity irked her a little at the sight of the girl. She could be a relative to the hybrid, except from the missing horns and the voluminous natural ringlets of the child that rolled straight to the ground in a waterfall of platinum, but Hazel identified the girl as a complete human despite her unique details--just like herself. She had pale complexion and just the precise quirky touch of orange in her lips. Chocolate eyebrows sat atop blue eyes followed by a delicate nose and an array of freckles. An eccentric mixture. If Hazel hadn't known better, she would say both were brought together due to their similar appearances and were led to her by the same circumstances. She was also the only human on this backwater planet with ashy hair.

  
"What is your name?" Saul asked. Hazel blinked at both of them. Although unconventionally resemblance to one another, she still didn't trust them. No one can chat with her owner and get away alive without some exchange.

  
"Hazel Reidia" she replied after an extended minute as her mind realised something. She figured that if her owner had left her alone instead of dragging her across the desert as an example of the consequences rebellious teenagers would suffer due to their intervention, then perhaps they deserved more trust than she let on. Besides, the male carried something she would never see on anyone but in a Peacekeeper. "You're a Jedi, aren't you?" She surveyed the weapon clipped on the male's belt with critical eye. She had never regarded a real lightsaber in her life, however Tatooine is known for being the navel of the galaxy, if there's something that shouldn't be sold then this is the place to do it. Of course, most of the sabres she had seen in the markets were fake, but it still didn't take the fantasy from them. So upon observing a real one as part of the hybrid's attire, she immediately judged him as a member of the Jedi.

  
"No" his smile saddened for a second but quickly sparked up again, "but we're Force-Sensitive. I can sense you are one as well."

  
Hazel's jaw dropped to the sand. So they hadn't approached her for her frizzy hair.

  
"What?"

  
"We heard rumours about a child who can feel Ore from miles away." Hazel stepped back. And she thought people could cultivate that. "Is it true? Or were we misled?"

  
"I--" She didn't know what to say. It certainly paid well to be able to mine Ore without droids, her employer was most delighted to see that he didn't need to spend money on other resources than her, but she never expected her skill to call the attention of others. Especially offworlders. "But how---?" She swallowed, "how did you know?"

  
"We keep track of special children like you", he explained, " but, shall we discuss this over lunch? I'm hungry." The girl beside him nodded and Hazel agreed. That did it to her. They had her full trust now.

  
He took her to a restaurant close by. She had gone there a couple of time but for some reason, it all looked different to her eyes. She realised then that this was her first meal as a free person. Although, she had never truly considered herself a slave because she actually had a larger leash than most and thus had more independence, she still didn't feel like her own person until that very moment. Dictating whom to work for didn't really count as liberty, so as she picked her dish from the menu, she allowed herself to sincerely smile for the first time in her life.

  
"How did you do it?" she inquired at the man, "how did you free me?"

  
"I made a deal with Kooik" he carefully responded as he studied his own menu. He bought her then. Just like Kooik told her. Officials paid her employer for her services and she'd receive ten percent of the winnings, which wasn't much but it allowed her to have luxuries other didn't. Apart from choosing from to work for, she actually had her own belongings and her own house. But it all was an false illusion then. No matter what, she was still considered a slave. A mining slave. And she thought she had come to terms with it. Apparently she never did. "Sarisa and I have lived here for a couple of months already, in our search for you", the Jedi carried on, "but we didn't have the means to liberate you. So we worked here for a while, sold all of our possessions, and finally saved enough to have you here with us now." He spoke as if he had done absolutely no sacrifice whatsoever, when all his words translated as such in her mind. She couldn't believe them. Were Jedi always this good? Did they free people just because they shared their connection with whatever they were connected to? Was this a normal occurrence to them? It overwhelmed her. "And we're glad of doing so. Our goal is for you to join us, to come with us so that I can teach you the ways of the Force. Nevertheless, "he emphasised", we won't pressure you, young one. You have the will to decide now, you must do as you wish". He offered her another smile and returned to his menu.

  
Hazel gawked at the girl also concentrated on her menu. None of them paid her attention when she felt she could explode.

  
"Why did you do it?" she snapped, "why would you? I mean nothing to either of you." She remembered then that they probably were the couple who were going to buy her before she attempted to escape from them. That's why she was running away, because her ex-owner told her someone wanted her, not for an occasional job, but as an endless servant, and of course, she wouldn't let that happen so she fled. In turned out, the Jedi were the ones who desired her. And not for slavery but to become one of them. Oh dear, she really couldn't believe it.

  
"You are important", he remarked calmly, "any child of the Force is important to us. You are not meant to be a miner, young one. You are meant for something greater, and we are doing our utmost to give the same hope to all sentient around the world that bonds with the Force. It's our duty", he added. 

  
"Are there more then?"

  
"No", he sighed, "Sarisa is the only one I've found so far. Apart from you."

  
"Kooik had faith in you." She admitted. Her ex-owner was very guarded about it but she had seen it. He believed in the Jedi. Although people thought them extinct, he was confident they would return one day and restore order to the galaxy. That didn't soften his personality one bit but it did earned Hazel a better treatment than others(yes, a wooden pole was a mild thing compared to those who were truly under the name of real slavers). She just never realised she believed in them too until that day. That's why she liked to examine the fake lightsabers in the market, because deep inside her she knew those weapons could lit up again and end tyranny. 

  
"Indeed, we bargained part of his favour because of it". Saul commented. Hazel deduced the other part involved money.

  
"Was he right then? Will the Jedi return one day?"

  
"That's my purpose", his eyes aged as it cast a wary glance around them, "as it would be yours if you complete your training".

  
"Would we go off world then?" She couldn't contain her excitement.

  
"If you wish so. I'm in no hurry", he folded his arms across his chest. The coast seemed to be clear of eavesdroppers.

  
"I am," she confessed, "at least to a place where I can see natural water".

  
"That makes us two, Master", Sarisa intoned, her eyes locked on the menu card. Hazel honestly didn't know what she was doing by then, the menu's options could be counted with your fingers, what did she see that didn't detach her sight from it?

  
"I guess we should," he mused, "but we cannot leave yet. We promised our help to a friend of Kooik's, we must finish it. Besides, a bit of extra money won't do us bad. We cannot leave without it".

  
Hazel concurred, she knew that better than anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm researching as much as I can to make things accurate according to Legends but I must admit I'm still learning.  
If you see any detail about the EU that I should fix please let me know.  
Thank you so much for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2, after prologue! I'm updating everything I've written so far, which isn't much but I'll do.  
Thanks for reading this once again, I won't get tired of saying this. Thank you so much. 
> 
> ***The chapters have, sometimes, time jumps. Not huge as in years but more like months.  
It still follows a linear timeline nonetheless.  
****I'm adding now original characters from the EU. I hope I do them justice.  
*****There's a little of science in here. It's not my forte so I'm doing my utmost to define it properly. I'm sorry if I miss some things or If I've gotten a detail wrong. Let me know as soon as you see it, thank you! Enjoy!

A knock on the door startled Hazel. The old text accidentally closed and sprayed her face with dust. She almost choke. The door opened and Sarisa entered, her arms carrying as many books as Hazel could possibly imagine. Even as she coughed, she was admired by the amount of knowledge that girl could store in her brain in just a couple of weeks. Not just about their religion but about science in general. She had a habit of comparing the Force with science as if something so crude as that could explain the wonders of the Force; but Hazel indulged her. Besides it was rather interesting and there isn't much you can do than listen Sarisa once she starts talking about electromagnetic radiation.

  
Hazel waved her hand to disperse the particles gagging her, but Sarisa sat down and the dust evaporated into nothing. Hazel's eyes, no longer irritated, bulged in awe as the environment in her room cleared again. She couldn't help the smile creeping on her face. Hazel once overheard her Master say that Sarisa had an special affinity with the Force no one else had ever experienced or seen, and moments like these made her realised her Master was right---even matter obeyed the young girl.

  
"Master has told me we have to finish this", Sarisa pointed at the piles of book she was neatly placing on Hazel's best with the Force. "I don't know what it is but seems relevant to our formation. What do you say? Shall we prepare food and spend the night reading?" A smirk broke in the girl's features and Hazel squinted suspiciously, she wanted something else than just read and eat.

  
"What is it, Sars?" She crossed her arms.

  
The smirk grew and a string of giggles left her lips. Hazel understood. She immediately opened one of the books and the first title wrote: _What are Photons?_ Hazel rolled her eyes and slammed the book to her friend's chest. "I'm not reading this! I still need to catch up on the Clans and the extensive definition of the Three Pillars, I haven't even finished the Code! There are individual texts for each Pillar and for each line of the Code!" She realised her tone bordered complain and she bit her tongue instantly. No, she was _not_ complaining. She knew her studies were part of a large process, a process all great things have. She couldn't _possibly_ whine about it. She felt grateful for the opportunity given, she couldn't waste it. "I'm sorry" she retook her usual pitch, "but I don't have time for that. Besides you're the one urging me to read faster so that Master can take us to Ilum."

  
"Fine", Sarisa huffed, "but would you, please, let me stay here then?" She pleaded, her blue eyes twinkling, "I've practised my Forms the entire day and I've meditated as well but the day is NOT over!" She grumbled and Hazel thought she had the right to do so. Their Master instructed them to revise the texts together, to basically learn from one another, and complete their theoretical training. Sarisa would explain Hazel what she had already reviewed for twelve years and Hazel would acquired not only the knowledge of their beliefs but also to learn how to discern each point of view of the Order they intended to create. In Hazel's case, it indeed was something enriching but she understood how it could bore Sarisa sometimes. The girl had been literally raised by these teachings, it was natural she felt bothered by their repetitive cycle.

  
"Of course you can. Just don't read at loud and don't poke my shield." She brandished a finger at her friend.

  
Sarisa laughed at Hazel's warning and nodded, "alright then, you have my word".

  
Both found their comfortable spots in Hazel's bed and carried on their studies. Sarisa on Science and Hazel on The Code.

  
Hazel's shield continued suffering delays, or so you could say. She had a mock-up in her mind, the desert of her home-planet as the bedrock of her shield, yet it was nothing but the shadow of what she was supposed to have. Her Master once showed her his own shield and she was mesmerised by the size of it, its strength, and the most beautiful thing, the scenery he had created as its foundation. A massive city, tall buildings and lines of speeders, all wedged into his emotions, memories and beliefs. Her Master told her she had to reach to _that_. In his case, his shield based its structure on the plane where he used to live, where the Temple used to reside, so she understood why he had such a complex mind---but hers didn't have to be the same. She just needed to protect herself. And, ironically enough, the planet she disliked so much for so long turned out to be the perfect barrier for her mind. However, this is the point, Sarisa loved to poke at her friend's shield in order to establish telepathic communication, especially in moments neither of them were allowed to talk(because Master gets upset if he gets interrupted) and it annoyed Hazel because Sarisa's presence was so immense, she couldn't ignore it. She attributed it at the lack of defences, that made Sarisa feel overbearing sometimes but then she recalled her Master's words and thought that perhaps Sarisa is simply like that, a luminous star in the Force. Someone you just can't overlook.

  
Fortunately, that night, as Hazel sifted through each page of the texts, Sarisa did not _poke_ her mind. Not even once. She still lingered in Hazel's brain, she _glided_ there, but she didn't move nor even peek out of curiosity at Hazel's thoughts. She would never admit it, of course, but she actually enjoyed Sarisa's presence alongside hers. It made her feel warm, even in the solitude of their reality. So, in conclusion, no _poking_ but do not leave either, that was Hazel's policy.

  
"Master's here", Sarisa announced.

  
Both girls organised the room and hurried to the door. He smiled at them, his usual tired eyes lighted up at the sight of them. It surprised him sometimes how much the girl's welcome delighted him.

  
"Hello young ladies", he greeted them and the pair lunged at him. He responded their hug without hesitation. "I see you missed me".

  
"We actually missed your cooking abilities, Master", Sarisa disclosed with a cheeky glint in her eyes.

  
"Well", he shook his head, "is this the kind of treatment I should receive?"

  
"I don't see why not", Hazel and Sarisa snorted and Saul sighed. He felt overruled by the children.

  
"Fine, but we'll practice Shifting Meditation during cleaning." The girls agreed. Cleaning for them wasn't just washing the dishes, it meant something more. In their case, Master Saul used the opportunity to teach them Levitation. Just as in the Temple they used Shifting Sand Meditation in order to focus on small particples and discipline one's mind as to reap a better dominion of the Force, he used the foam of the soap to teach them this particular art of the Force. The foam is a colloid in which gas particles remain evenly dispersed in a certain solution despite the length they travel; they do not settle in a single place but are in constant movement. So to push the girl's faculties, he made them _tamper_ with the physics of it. He was proud to say that the girls were good at it. Quite good actually.

  
They prepared the meal together. The girls asked questions about their studies as they cut, fried and served the food, and Saul replied to each doubt with the best of his abilities. Due to their youth and innocence, most of the questions were easy to handle. Although, he took his duties seriously and would never leave their training to chance nor lazy replies, he was aware that once the girls got older, things would change, get complicated, and all sense of easiness he had in the present would disappear. So, he appreciated the blissful memories the girls gifted him in these instances. Besides, the children's hunger for wisdom made him travel back to the past, to the younglings' unceasingly curiosity.

  
They dined in silence, and later, as they cleaned(which involved floating bubbles), Sarisa turned on the HoloNet. Most Republic's propaganda didn't interest them but it was a habit of them to let its babble fill their apartment. They just needed some extra noise besides their breathing. And also, Saul admitted the news could be useful sometimes, you never know what you can encounter and it is always good to be at the top of things. So better be well informed.

  
The reporter played her usual part in the Jedi's temporary household. Spoke about events that didn't concern them much, foretold the weather for the next couple of days, gossiped about the celebrities of Coruscant--until she mentioned a single name that tensed the Master. The girls sensed their Master's distress and felt it in the Force. His signature quivered as if he had heard something he shouldn't, or something he simply didn't expect. He abandoned his chore and shuffled to the screen, his eyes wide.

  
"Leaks has informed us that former Jedi Knight Meetra Surik has returned to Coruscant after ten years of exile. Although not confirmed, it is rumoured that the Republic's fleet is on route to meet her. Ex-Jedi Knight Surik, known for her involvement in the Mandalorian Wars after the Jedi Order adamantly refused to support the Republic, was judged and banished from---" The HoloNet blinked out.

  
The girls stood still. Their Master took a moment to gather himself and turned to them. His shields were strong enough to prevent any of them to read his real thoughts, but his presence in the Force wavered, unable to hide his agitation. The news had upset him and although it didn't register in his face, once again his presence didn't fully mask it. The girls just remained silent and waited for her Master to talk. Whether they were acquainted to the female Jedi or not, she was still a one of them. Someone like their Master. So she had to be important. And they waited for him to explain.

  
The explanation didn't come. He sent them to their dormitory, tucked each girl into their beds and then disappeared into his room. The girls didn't feel him after that. He had completely shut himself away, even from their bond. Anxious, they didn't find rest until the sun rose. Hazel drooled over her text she hadn't finished to read the night before as Sarisa snored under the opened book plastered on her face. Saul had to accommodate the kids and just let them sleep. When they woke up, their Master had already left for work.

  
Without much to do, they continued their routine for the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another side note: Ao3 is messing with my editing. I don't know if I'm doing it wrong or if the website is just playing with my chapters. I'm trying to make it right, but I can't change, for example, the End Notes of chapter two. It has mixed with the notes I made for chapter one, and it looks sooo bad. I don't know how to fix it :(  
Anyway, thanks for reading this far! Thank you!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part three!  
Thanks for reading! I'm very sorry for my mistakes! I'm very, very sorry. Please let me know whatever you find. Thank you.  
Enjoy!

The droid's wooden rod aimed at her, in the precise spot between her head and her shoulders, but she sensed it. She turned in time to block the attack and ward it off, delivering a retreating strike to cover her opening. The droid lost his footing for a second but rushed back to her again. She quickly jabbed her own rod to its head and thrust for the second time when something impacted on her temple and knocked her on the ground. The Force's scream rang in her ears a little too late.

  
She rubbed her eyes, and as she sit she contemplated Sarisa fighting her own droid. She had no trouble deflecting the droid's assaults, in fact, she seemed to be dancing with it rather than sparring. Her motions were fluid and in perfect synchronisation. The Force assembled around her like a tornado and it lashed out whenever she ordered it to, shoving the droids away and giving her space and time to prepare for the next attacks. A force to be reckoned with, her Master once said. Hazel couldn't deny it, her friend had an amazing physic to battle several droids at once and defeat them even in their hardest mode.

  
Hazel sighed. Sometimes she wondered if she really was meant for this. Not only did she lacked mental training but physical training as well. Her Master always comforted her, whenever she had these sort of self doubts, by telling her that she is yet to _fully_ listen to the Force, that the Force is something so colossal she had to develop patience to control it. Just like the sluggish procedure of her theoretical studies, she couldn't expect the Force to respond to her as effectively as it did to Sarisa who had trained her entire life. And she sincerely understood that. But she couldn't help herself sometimes. Seeing Sarisa so versed in the Force made her think her pace was too low, when it was the exact opposite. She just assumed she had to pay more attention to the Force's signals and do as her Master had taught her. Let the Force consume and guide her movements.

  
Thereupon, Sarisa's droids switched off.

  
"Hazel, what are you doing?" Sarisa noticed her friend on the floor and outstretched her hand at her. Hazel took it. "Come on, Hazel", she raised the girl to her feet and clapped her upper arms, "you won't disarm any enemy sitting down."

  
"This is harder than I anticipated", she confessed.

  
"Of course it is. There is a reason why Jedi start young, since they are babies actually."

  
"Yes. Initiate" Hazel murmured, recalling the variety of information the texts offered about it. Considering her age, Hazel should be a Padawan but as she was well aware, she had to start from the very beginning if she wanted to become an excellent Jedi like her Master. That made her reevaluate her former thoughts a minute ago. She couldn't compare herself to her friend. Not when she had departed Tatooine only months ago. Well, that ought a good meditation session.

  
"Indeed." Sarisa grinned. "So, shall we split chores today? I can do laundry and you cook".

  
"You know Master won't like if you do my laundry, Sars. He has told us many times that we should wear our robes with pride and---"

  
"Yes, yes, fine", Sarisa shrugged, "let's take a bath and then do our laundry then".

  
Master had always impressed upon the girls the importance of keeping their robes immaculate. In the sense that they shouldn't send someone else do their work---they had to wash it, iron it and fold it themselves in order to make the attire their own. Even their boots had to be polished after parring. They had to maintain the appearance worthy of a Jedi. No matter that they were in a modest apartment rather than in a sophisticated temple, they still had to look the part. That's why Hazel never split the chores. Unlike others in the past, she didn't have the privilege to be trained under appropriate circumstances, although she didn't mind the setting of their apartment for which her Master laboured very hard for it, she still held onto the few things she could have done if she were in the temple. And one of those things was the laundry, as humble as it sounded, it made her feel part of the Order. Plus, she got the chance to exercise Shifting Meditation.

  
They took their baths, cooked a quick meal and finally attended to their clothes. They couldn't wear it outside though, people could identify them, but inside the house, the rules were just as strict as in the Temple.

  
After their dried the foam and hung their robes, their Master arrived. They immediately went to greet him and he embraced both girls as he usually did. He had stopped questioning his feelings of attachment by that point. He didn't accept them, hadn't come to terms with it, nor voiced them but he didn't purged them either. No amount of Empty Meditation would stripped him of such emotions, he had already tried. So he just let it reside in the back of his mind. Untouched and undisturbed.

  
"We just did our laundry, Master!" Sarisa beamed at him. "We deserve dessert!"

  
Hazel rolled her eyes and Saul just smiled at her.

  
"Fortunately for you, little one, I did bring dessert today." He opened his bag and handed each a piece of cake from the Togruta's shop not far from their building. The girls' mouth watered at the sight of the delicious food. "You seem to know what I bring everytime I come, don't you Sarisa?" 

  
"Not really but I might have poked your shield with certain images of Air Cake", she bit her cake as her lashes fluttered in innocence. The Master sighed. He did sensed her the second she tried to sneak into his shield but he let her be until the cake randomly appeared in his thoughts and he pushed her away. He got hungry after that and reluctantly decided to buy a sweet.

  
"You're very resourceful when it comes to food, aren't you? Why aren't you like that with your studies, young one? You don't need incentives to read your texts".

  
"I don't but I welcome them either way".

  
Hazel and Saul exchanged looks and rolled their eyes simultaneously.

  
They dined what the girls had already prepared and watched the HoloNet (they still hadn't confirmed the status of the former Jedi Knight they announced) as they cleaned. The typical pattern. Once they had all impeccable, Saul decided to address the situation he had been avoiding for the last couple of weeks. The girls seemed to have figured out his intention because they sat in front of him after he turned off the HoloNet. He regarded them for a moment, traced each face he had opposite him, and talked. He talked about the Mandalorian Wars, about the Wound it left in the Force after twenty years of blood shedding, about the Sith involvement in it, about the Sith themselves, about the Dark Side of the Force, about the aftermath the Mandalorian-Republican's conflict brought--the Jedi Civil War, the desolation of the Jedi Order and lastly the Purge, period in which they were currently living. He told them everything. The moon left the skies, the Sun took over, and yet they continued conversing. Conversing about the reality the girls had to live now due to the selfishness not only of the Sith but the Jedi themselves. It took them an entire day and the girls were drained. They had taken quite well all the information and secrets he had exposed but it still tired them after a long day.

  
When he tucked them into their beds, he himself realised he was exhausted. He went to his room to meditate and then departed again to work. He had to sustain two children and himself so a job was in order. He didn't mind though, he liked being a Healer. When the girls woke up by afternoon, they made their breakfast and sat down to discuss several matters. Both felt they aged decades as they put the cards on the table and argued about each of them.

  
"Did you notice he never told us his position in the Mandalorian Wars?" asked Sarisa as she stabbed her eggs. Hazel winced at the liquid oozing from the yolk. "Was he a Revanchist or did he abide by the Council's mandate?"

  
"Most of the Revanchists who survived the Wars fell to the Dark Side, and the only one who returned to face her trial was Surik, so I assume he stood by the Council and then escaped", Hazel reasoned.

  
"You right", she concurred, "but it's still silly, isn't it? How is that the Council didn't see the imminent danger? If the Mandalorians hadn't been detained by the Revanchists, they would've suceeded in their conquest. You heard the Master's talk about their vast forces. The odds were in their favour. Only due to the Jedi's last-minute participation, the Republic was able to turn the tide."

  
"I know. But the Revanchists paid their price for disobeying, didn't they? They were tainted by the Dark Side and they brought suffering and pain afterwards. The Jedi Civil War is proof of it, of what the Dark side does to people. No one in their right mind would do such thing. That's why the Sith are evil."

  
"Yes but if the Council had agreed to fight by the Republic's side from the beginning neither of the Revanchists would have escaped their judgements nor would have Fallen. They simply would have returned to the Temple and carried on with their business. But the Council doomed them. They obliged them to stand down as they watched millions die at the hands of a manipulated war. How would you feel in their place? Wouldn't it bother you? They should have pledged their support the second the war irrupted and perhaps they'd have avoided the Purge".

  
Hazel pursed her lips. Her friend had a good solid point. The Mandalorian Wars were determined and choreographed by the Sith. One of them influenced the Mandalorians to besiege worlds, to subjugate the Republic and dominate the galaxy. And as far-fetched as it would've sounded to others, to the Mandalorians -a warrior culture- it didn't. To them it made perfect sense and stirred them to submit the galaxy into a carnage they had always secretly craved. They did precisely as the Sith predicted and began a war that lasted for twenty years. The Republic rose to defend their own but the Jedi High Council rebuffed all call for help and forbade Jedi to take part in it. For a long time, the Jedi stood by, until the Revanchists led by Revan and his friend Malak stepped in and joined the Republic Military. All the Jedi became Generals, and with each of them at the front, the Republic got the upper hand and won. However, in the end, Revan and his people defected from the Order----which consequently brought the Jedi Civil War upon them. And that's what puzzled Haze. Why didn't the Council assist the Republic? Surely they had the required resources and the Jedi themselves to strike, so why didn't they? The Master said that the Council didn't know the consequences of the war and therefore, didn't want to meddle their members into such campaign. But that's ridiculously egoistical. Weren't the Jedi supposed to be Peacekeepers? Why would they hold such title if they didn't rise to meet the challenge? It just didn't fit. And that brought Sarisa's observation about the War. Could the Jedi's public collaboration have changed the resultant of the war? Could the Purge have been avoided?

  
Hazel shook her head. She understood now why their Master took so long to tell them about this. It had many grey areas they couldn't clarify no matter how much data had been dug from the Sith's involvement. And that led to speculation, which could ultimately led to arguments. Like the very one she was having with her friend at the moment. But no. No. Hazel viewed this as a lesson. Whatever errors the Council made, she was convinced their cause was an honest one. She was certain that although the Jedi did plunged their own into slumber and devoided the galaxy of their services, the Council made their decision for a reason Sarisa and herself were too young to comprehend. The members of the Council weren't chosen as the core of the Order if they didn't practice their altruistic and selfless ideologies. She knew they had a valid motive. And she put her faith into it.

  
"I don't think we should doubt the Council's decision, Sars. They made it for a reason", she exhorted.

  
"I find their reason disturbing", Sarisa licked her lips disgruntled. Hazel noted that tendency of her friend everytime she felt upset. The topic was disconcerting her.

  
"Look at it this way, Sars", Hazel grabbed the girl's hand and gently squeezed it, "let's assume, for argument's sake, that the Council took military action and deployed all its forces to the field. They'd come out victorious, return home, and continued with their lives. Now, Revan learnt in the last battle about the Sith agent pulling the strings, right? So of course, as all righteous people, he'd take all necessary measurements to go and follow this trail. In his journey, he would have been found by the Sith--and what do you think it would happen next?" Sars' grimace hinted her realisation. "He would have fallen nonetheless. And the Jedi Civil War would have decimated all Jedi's remnants and I'm sure not even our Master would've survived".

  
"You think the Jedi would have died in the war?" 

  
"I think they'd have sustained enough causalities to bring the Order into the brink of collapse. There's a reason why that war has labelled Wound in the Force".

  
Sars hunched, her fork still playing with the food---she still hadn't eaten anything yet. "I think you have too much working brain cells I'd like to borrow someday", she scratched her nape and made a face, uncomfortable. Hazel nodded to herself and resumed her eating. She didn't even know where she got the logic from but it made sense so she let it hover around them.

  
"I just want believe in us, Sars", Hazed whispered, almost scared to say her thoughts at loud. "I know they made big mistakes and are far from perfect, but we should learn from the past and improve. Otherwise, why are we here then? We're committing our time and our lives for them. It'd be a waste if we abandon it. I don't think Master meant to discourage us by telling us the truth. I think he wanted us to see through the Jedi's actions and establish our own opinion, so that when we decide to continue their legacy, we wouldn't do it blindly. Besides, Sars, Jedi didn't intended to wield lightsabers for military purposes, did they?"

  
"I guess they didn't".

  
"Have faith, Sars", Hazel flashed her most charming smile, "the Jedi Knight Surik is looking for the surviving Masters. I don't think men who have paid for their own blunders would condemn the new generation into an unevolved path".

  
"That seems like a big If, Hazel".

  
"Well, I reason that if the Order has survived since primitive eras is because they have the wisdom to keep it alive".

  
"It just bugs me", Sarisa snapped and the Force throbbed precariously for a second. Hazel retreated. "They, _we_, are called Peacekeepers, and for what?" Her friend snarled, " To seclude ourselves when war comes? To forsake our own after those out there basically rebuilt the Republic from scraps? It's so wrong of them! What if they do the same to us when the new Order reforms? What if another Sith comes and orchestrates a war? What if we fail again?"

  
"We won't", Hazel replied firmly, "we won't Sarisa. As long as you and I are part of the Order, we won't let them repeat the past. I don't think our Master would permit it either. He saw the repercussion of the Council's actions first-hand, he couldn't possibly lay down arms again."

  
Sarisa slumped on her sit, the Force receding into its peaceful aura, "that's if we get to be in the Council".

  
"Well, I'm not picking up the broken pieces of the Jedi and not be granted a sit on the Council", Hazel puffed offended, "I'm planning to be the youngest member of the Council or else I'm going to riot".

  
Sarisa guffawed, an actual laugh Hazel herself hadn't heard before.

  
"I guess you have a point, my dear friend".

  
And their argument concluded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jedi are hard to understand, aren't they?  
I hope I made justice to this part and the entire debate.  
Thanks for reading! Have a good day!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 4!  
*I've used some science for this as well and I swear I think I'm just inventing things because my brain doesn't grasp concepts. I'm sorry. I tried to make it as realistic as possible and I hope it really is but If I got something wrong, please, let me know. I'll fix it up in no time.  
**First appearance of original characters. I honestly hope I'm doing it right.  
Thanks for reading. Enjoy!

The Living Force. A tingling energy that binds life together. It dwells in all beings, from the seeds underground, to the very altitude of the skies. It's what imbued the Jedi with purpose and what allows them to manipulate things beyond conceivable. A Jedi can project her sentiments to a crowd by the Living Force, a Jedi could levitate objects from the ground by the Living Force, a Jedi can feel specks of life itself due to the Force--due to the Living Force. Jedi are merely agents of the Force, forged to protect it and safeguarded. Which is why the Force screams at death. A Jedi can sense a being dying as real as you can sense a person's body warmth next to you. They can _feel_ it. And that's why Hazel's Master spoke about the Wound in the Force. The Mandalorian Wars claimed so many lives that the Force suffered a permanent damage. A Wound. Now, imagine, if you can feel a single person dying, how would it feel to sense millions passing away at the same time? The text described it as "shocking". It could knock you out of consciousness and put you to sleep. Because that's how strong the Force is merged into all beings. How tight the Jedi's connection with the Force is.

  
The Unifying Force, however, is the Force on a more cosmic scale. It doesn't just bind life, it webs the very fabric of the universe itself. To walk through the Unifying Force is to abandon one's body for a more holy experience. To see past, present and future. In science, Sars once explained it as the Higgs Field(named after the Corellian scientist who discovered it), manifested as _deity_ particles that generates mass through its interaction with others, which in return, gives density to the Universe. That's the reason behind the creation of life itself. In the Jedi's case, it has a more spiritual approach but even to non-Force-Sensitive beings it still affects them. It links them all into space and time. It's weaves both agents of the Force and regular beings into a single net, thus called Unifying Force.  
And that's first Pillar of the Jedi's Code. The Force. The second was Knowledge, and the third one Self-Discipline. Hazel had already studied everything, all three of them, but she felt more inclined to learn about the Force and the abilities it provides. Self-Discipline is basically more about Meditation and Lightsaber training, but as much fun as that is, she rather immerse herself on Knowledge and the Force. In that moment, as she flipped through specific pages she had bookmarked from the texts, she wrote down all her thoughts about her studies. A summary in another words. Plastering information about it made her feel like she was achieving something instead of just memorising it. So, she always took time aside from her other duties in the house to focus on this. Moving Meditation her Master had called it.

  
Sarisa meditated during the practice of her Forms, Hazel meditated in her self-dictated lessons.

  
She inked in her entire brain into the piece of paper and, after hours, she got up. Her knees popped as she stretched. She snorted. She definitely needed to exercise her body--it felt giddy after so long sitting in one position, she couldn't even properly stand. Her mind didn't protest at all though, the Moving Meditation had relaxed the whirlwind of her brain, but her body utterly disagreed.

  
She went outside, grabbed a snack, and headed to the basement. They trained there, away from prying eyes. Master Saul was already there, supposedly to supervise Sarisa's combat skills, yet he seemed to be in some sort of trance himself so Hazel tried not to disturb him. Hazel tiptoed past him when he greeted her and she squealed. Sarisa turned in that second and a droid charged at her. Hazel watched in horror as the droid rose its training sabre to her friend, yet Sarisa's Force tornado curled around her and bounced off the sabre, grinding it along with the droid's arm. Sarisa gasped and immediately reached for the droid. The latter entered the girl's arms and shut down, its shoulder sparkling at the severed circuits.

  
"Oh no, Missy!" Sarisa checked the cables and choked out a sob, "oh no! What did I do? Poor thing!"

  
"We can fix it, Sarisa. Do not get emotional over a droid", her Master warned. 

  
"It's the second time it happens Master!" Sarisa seemed deeply conflicted and Hazel eyed her friend in shock. "I can't control _this_ shield!" She spat angrily. Hazel again blinked perplexed.

  
"It's not just any shield, young one", Master Saul knelt beside her and gently grazed her chin, "It's my shield and yours combined". This time Sarisa and Hazel stared bewildered at their Master. "You feel the tendrils of the Force, right? How it coils around you whenever you are in danger or feel upset", Sarisa nodded, "Well that's my _screen_ shield. Hazel has one too, although she still hasn't noticed, but she does", he smiled at her and Hazel lowered her head embarrassed.

  
How did she fail to detect that? It dawned on her then. All the occasions she had sparred with the droids and the beatings she had taken---none of the countless blows had left her scars or even made her bleed. And the wooden rods they used weren't exactly a bland instrument. They could be deadly, but Hazel never felt more than a mere prickle despite the power of the droids. She couldn't believe it. Her Master had encapsulated her in a very effective shield and she hadn't even felt it. So much studies about the Living Force and she couldn't discern a shield. She sighed. This deemed another meditation session.

  
"I didn't know it came from you Master," Sarisa blushed, unable to make eye contact with him, "I'm sorry".

  
"Don't be. I created them with the intention to keep it secret. Our foes cannot know. So it would prudent it remains that way".

  
"Would they exploit our connection if they knew?" The words slipped past Hazel's lips before she could bit them back. She clamped her hand over her mouth, eyes comically wide, "I'm so sorry, Master, I didn't mean---"

  
"They would", replied the Master, "so as I said, let's be sensible about it". The girls nodded and he smiled at them again. "I think it's time for some biscuits. Shall we?" They immediately stood behind him, Sarisa still carrying her droid Missy, and he giggled. These girls honestly.

  
He stepped on the staircase, hands rummaging through the droid's parts(Sarisa's shield had quite dusted it), when a stone-cold surface whammed his forehead and jostled him against the treads. The girl's screamed his name and he instantly reached for them but the ceiling suddenly began to crack. He thought someone was trying to break in so he ushered the girls upstairs, but as the ceiling crumbled, a hurricane erupted. An unnatural gale that stormed through all the training items. The droids, the boxes, the rods, the very walls that began to fragment and the paint that peeled from it---pure destruction no one but a Force-Sensitive person could create. He groped for the children in the middle of the disaster but as he staggered to them he realised he was alone. Another place had replaced his reality in matter of seconds and instead displayed him the image of three hooded people sitting in front of a woman, who seemed under Force Stasis, under a catatonic state, dangling a meter from the floor.

  
In the distant, the younglings continued calling him. He nominated this a vision the moment he heard the children. This wasn't a future reality or a illusion, it was a mental image. He replied at them, trying to sooth their alarmed signatures in the Force, but a familiar voice overrode his. His blood froze. That's when he felt it. The great disturbance of the Force. The titanic tempest of the Force that rendered the hurricane into nothing. It rotated around him, spun in fast, and boiled in stark wrath as it tightened his grip on him, and centred him precisely on the eye. The proximity left him defenceless against its poisonous tendrils that whirled in seething rage. Its ferocity scalded his skin. It melted his flesh. Such brutality, such malice. He couldn't fathom the darkness that had imprisoned him in its vicious cycle. That was the Dark Side of the Force. No Light Sider, even in their lowest point, could conjure such noxious force. Only a Sith, a Lord of the Sith, could summon such power. And no matter how much he had investigated about the Dark Side, he simply couldn't understand the evil that surrounded him. And the worst part is that he couldn't fight it. It physically hurt him to move. Unless he wanted to spend an entire week in hibernation trying to cleanse the evilness that threatened to seep into his pores, he just couldn't add more friction to his current state.

  
For his sake, he had to be calm. Breath and shield himself however he could.

  
Over the roar of the cyclone and his own ragged breathing, he heard her again. He couldn't see past the dense wind so he felt her presence striding to the gathered group next to him. She barged in and immediately funnelled her fury into the three men. They faltered to the point of almost fainting. With a single flick of her wrist, she scattered the three figures and started mercilessly jolting them with electric discharges. The woman in Statis watched in horror as the Sith lighted the masters up. He grasped the picture then. The Jedi Enclave had met Surik to finally decide her fate. That's what he witnessed in the first part of the vision, but the Masters had voided the Jedi of the Force. He couldn't jump to conclusions regarding the subject but he didn't like it. No Master in their right mind would try to do such thing to her after her repentance. She herself had risked her life to look for them and bring them together. They couldn't possibly be so absurd to think that she deserved punishment after all the entire Order had gone through.

  
He almost walked out of the storm but the searing pain of his arm reminded him that he couldn't move.

  
"You hypocrites!" Kraia barked. The Dark Sider, the one whom once accepted him under her tutelage, a Sith. "You preach about self-sacrifice and abnegation and yet you let the Mandalorians massacred the galaxy! So obsessed about idealism and still make your actions far from the best outcome!" The masters cried out but she intensified her hatred with each plea. Master Saul just observed. "Your attempting to preserve the Jedi's dogma led us to near annihilation! You care more about your teachings than those affiliated to your Order! How can you claim that she has become a Wound in the Force when it was your decision making that brought the Civil War upon us? The Jedi didn't fail you, Masters, you failed them!" She waved her hands at them again and instead of Force Lightning, a stream of concentrated power impacted on the masters and lifted them from the floor. They wailed desperately but she didn't stop. She held them in the air, fingers contorting as they pulled pieces of the Force from them, submerging the Masters into a torturous procedure of Force Drain. "If you believe that she will consume life then let me make you taste what it feels then!" This time Master Saul shouted for his former Master but she didn't listen. She lured the Jedi masters right into her hands, clawed each head, and cast another pulse of Force penetrating the masters' bodies. They couldn't even produce sound after such extreme attack.

  
Master Saul knew what she was doing to them. She was putting them through the same suffering Surik experienced at the battle on Malachor V, when she issued the order of The Mass Shadow Generator's activation, murdering both Mandalorian and Republic armadas caught in its blast. She was making them feel the Wound of the Force itself.

  
Saul had always been aware of the catastrophe Surik unfolded in Malachor V, she herself wouldn't have survived it if she hadn't cut her connection with the Force in that precise instant. Nevertheless, she paid a high price for it after her banishment from the Order and in her exile. So how could the Jedi Masters not see that she had met her fate, accepted it and overcame it? At that moment, she had done the right thing and, though she sacrificed friends of her own, she did it for the very government the Jedi swore to protect. She carried the deaths of the victims of the war but not for the reason the Masters thought. She did it to remind herself of her deeds, to keep the pain intact and live through it in honour of those who couldn't anymore. She let guilt engulf her so that those who died there, hadn't died in vain. She preserved them alive in her memory. But not feed on them. And despite everything, the Jedi Enclave hadn't forgiven her. Instead they had tried to divested her of the Force.

  
The Masters didn't endure the torment. So before they perished, Kraia revealed her Sith identity as Darth Traya, and let them die. She released Surik and Saul at the same time, one to collapse into a Force induced sleep and the other to face the scared children that cried for him.

  
He just stared at them lost in words. How could he explain this?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent an entire night writing this part. It was so hard to describe it. I believe it's decent enough, I hope it does some justice to the actual Force.  
Thanks for reading! Leave your critics below, thank you!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm taking my time posting the following chapters. I'm trying to edit them as much as I can to make it understandable but I dunno. To my eyes everything makes sense but English is not my first language so perhaps I'm making mistakes. I'm very sorry for those. Please tell me as soon as you find something wrong.  
Thank you for your tolerance.  
Enjoy reading!

Hazel loved reading about Force-Wielding animals. Galactic Bestiary, the text called it. Utterly fascinating to her eyes. The fact that there were creatures capable of connecting to the Force just as good as a Jedi could, amazed her. Of course, it wasn't as developed as a Jedi's, but they could still perform some brilliant stunts with it. For example, some of them could hide their presence even from fully-trained Jedi. Imagine to be able to do that. Master had explained her that Jedi are actually perfectly capable to do that but it required tons of meditation and training. But in the case of these creatures, it came naturally. Just another trait of their instincts. Wonderful, isn't it?

  
Regrettably, there weren't much details about them. Only few had dedicated bits of their time to study certain animals and found out about the ones Hazel meditated at the moment. The content had been plastered in a single book, and didn't delve that much on the animals themselves but on the Jedi's duties to protect them. But well, at least it was something for Hazel to revel on. She loved animals. If her Master had allowed her to bring her _babies_, the apartment would be filled with dewbacks. She did missed them badly. She raised those reptiles, they were very docile and friendly. She cried when she had to say goodbye. Fortunately, Kooik, her former employer, shared the same love for animals so she knew they'd be in good hands. Kooik wasn't much of a human being but at the very least bounded with the creatures of Tatooine. 

  
She had spent most of the afternoon pondering about her favourite text. She had tried to classify the beasts according to her own criteria, which consisted on dangerous and submissive ones, and after hours, eighty percent off the listed creatures in the text ended up in the submissive side. Her Master, who had decided to train her that day, didn't know how make her understand that sometimes big creatures can basically swallow you whole despite your intentions not to harm them. 

  
"I'm sure we can communicate with them somehow, Master", Hazel asserted, eyes closed and limbs loosely crossed. "They might be misunderstood".

  
"I doubt they feel like that", he murmured as he watched a droid floating to the staircase. 

  
Master Saul had insisted on enhancing Hazel's sense abilities, and so, as Hazel meditated, he tested them. She had gotten good at Life Defection and Projective Telepathy. She practised the former everyday in order to perceive a place's Force signature and learn its purport. Say, he sent her to shop something or do random errands, if she sensed that said place had too much malevolence, then she'd clear out. That's Life Defection. The problem was that she needed to get too close to sense it. Her Force radius, as you could call it, was too narrow. She had to _stretch_ her senses more so that she wouldn't risk exposure. To that end, Master suggested her to do this exercise he sometimes did in the Temple. Very simple actually. He'd program a remote droid to slowly move out of the basement and wander freely around the block. If she could follow it and actually grab it with the Force out of the normal diameter she maintained, then that meant she had extended her senses. 

  
In that moment, as her mind was enthralled by her revision of the beasts, she had to split herself in two different tasks and execute them all at once. Trail the droid and meditate. So far she had exceeded her Master's expectations and managed to do both just fine. Even got to talk. Quite remarkable indeed. It took Sarisa a week to achieve something like this. Hazel had done it in three days. 

  
"I'm sure they do!" she replied, "besides, it says in the text that they do actually communicate with each other. It doesn't say if we can practice their languages but I'm sure the Force can help us if we ever encounter them."

  
"You pray we don't." He sighed. Hazel could achieve many great things, but stop talking about her dear animals wasn't one of them. Fortunately, Kooik did actually care for the dewbacks and hadn't sent them to the Czerka's secret laboratories. Otherwise, Hazel would have been long gone by now. She may not have issues against attachments but Force forbids her animals get hurt. That'd be crossing the line for her.

  
"You're just mean, Master. Give them a chance".

  
Master Saul sighed again defeated. He couldn't argue with Hazel about this. 

  
"I think this is enough for today, Hazel. Let's go outside."

  
"Are we going to dine?" Her eyes flew open and the remote droid whizzed past him. Saul laughed admired. She hadn't even noticed how far the droid had gone and somehow had brought it back in less than a second just by thinking about food. He couldn't say much about it though, he also ate as much as they did. It just didn't motivate him as much as it did to her. 

  
"It's not time yet, but I don't mind a snack", he admitted. 

  
"Let's get going then". 

  
As Master and apprentice headed to the kitchen, Hazel felt someone slipping through her mental shield. The intruder didn't need to knock Hazel's shield for the latter to know who it was. It was impossible to miss her huge presence in the Force, let alone her radiant signature. Hazel didn't open up quickly though. She wanted to test her shield, so she let Sarisa knock for as long as Hazel could hold. 

  
Three bangs on her shield and Hazel had to let Sarisa in. She really was a force hard to withstand. If it wasn't her blinding presence, her brute strength would goad one into unlocking the shield. Sarisa, clearly, didn't expect Hazel to open up so soon, so, as Hazel granted her entrance, she came barrelling in, unsteadying the girl's balance. Sarisa's mental impact on Hazel almost made her stumble into the kitchen's door. Master had to grab her by the elbow before she smashed her face into the wood. He didn't ask though. He probably figured it out, and just focused on the food. Hazel, on the other side, had to breathe four times to calm her racing mind. Sarisa apologised. 

  
"_You fool_", Hazel grunted inside Sarisa's head through their bond(or just Projective telepathy), "_next time, why don't you strike me with lightning?_"

  
"_I'm sorry, I thought you would endure longer! You told me you were practising!_" 

  
"_Well, evidently not anymore!_" 

  
Hazel could _hear_ Sarisa rolling her eyes. 

  
"_Fine. I'm sorry. Would you please come to the bathroom? I have a hair problem_", she pleaded. 

  
Hazel snorted. So much for that. 

  
Upon entering the bathroom, Hazel realised her friend had gotten into seriously trouble. Her infinite platinum hair had entangled with her limbs and she couldn't undo the mesh of her curls no matter how hard she tried to yank them free. It shouldn't have been hilarious, after all Sarisa was truly struggling there, but mad laughter bubbled from her lips. She couldn't help herself. Only Sarisa and her bushy hair could suffer such incidents. 

  
As she giggled, Hazel delicately extricated strand by strand from Sarisa's limbs, until, thirty minutes later, the girl's body was released. Finally, she dressed and let Hazel braid her hair. The girl was in the middle of the intricate process of combing Sarisa's ringlets, when they felt another strong presence in the Force walking into the apartment. A Jedi to be more specific. Both stiffened at the new sensation. They were so used to just feel each other in the fabric of the Force that adding another one made them anxious. They knew about the small number of Jedi who survived the Purge, but who would dare to come to their apartment in broad daylight? Three Jedi confined in a single place was enough peril. To bring another one would be to summon the Sith to their porch. To be honest, the girls were quite surprised that the Master had chosen such an abandon world that not even the Sith bothered to come. But perhaps three weren’t much of a threat. Four? Probably more than enough. 

  
They decided to stay put and listen. Just as Master instructed. Sarisa unfastened her shield, gingerly expanded her mind to reach for Master, and Hazel covered her trajectory. Something Master Saul had instilled in them since the moment the girls stepped into the apartment, was that they had to cloak their presences within the Force itself. They lived in unforgiving and harsh circumstances. They couldn't trust anyone outside and that included the Jedi as well. They could magnify their senses for better performance of their abilities, but their presences had to wane instead, just like the moon itself. Therefore, as Sarisa amplified her mind, Hazel spread her own shield to conceal both of them from the Jedi. Luckily, as Sarisa passed over, the Jedi remained unperturbed by Sarisa's Force tendrils probing for her Master. 

  
At first, neither of them believed Master Saul would let them hear the private conversation, but as soon as Sarisa grazed her Master's shield, he immediately lifted his barrier and let her in. The connection flowed without a hitch. Sarisa, then, broadcasted it to Hazel and both teleported to their Master's side. They watched as everything transpired fluently in front of them. Sarisa concentrated at once but Hazel gasped impressed. So this is how it felt to invade a person's mind. She could feel the Master's warmth, could hear his beating heart, could smell the man's study, and could even sense all of the emotions that surged through him at every word the other exchanged with him. She was rendered speechless. Was this how he felt when he spectated the vision from the unknown external party? Was this the reason why Sarisa had a breakdown the second their Master inadvertently channelled the vision to her? Was it always this intense? She could chatter through their bond but this was quite different. 

  
Hazel shrugged. She could meditate on that later. Now, she had to pay attention. 

  
A female Jedi, younger than Master Saul, sat in his study. Her arms folded across her chest and legs crossed. Her blue eyes probed the environment as if she expected to find something suspicious, until her gaze settled on him. For a second, she stared at Master Saul quite shaken. She had seen something she didn't mean to or didn't want to, but soon she composed herself.

  
"You've found more", she spoke low and cautious, but it didn't entirely hide the surprised clipped edges in it. 

  
Hazel's morale dropped to the floor. So much effort to hide themselves and she still had felt them. 

  
_"She doesn't know we're here, Hazel. The Force leaves tracks and she has felt them. She knows someone else is living with him but doesn't know who or how many_", Sarisa explained. The Master's mind rumbled in confirmation. Hazel arched her brow. Well, there's always something new to learn, isn't it?

  
"Which is why I cannot go to confront Kreia, Meetra", he replied flatly, "I cannot abandon them for a quest that isn't mine to fight". The Jedi Meetra and Master Saul interchanged glances at the word _them_, but neither commented further about it. 

  
"It _is_ yours, Saul, she was your Master and she became a mentor to me as well. We both meant something to her---and if you value the Order, you will help me face her and defeat her for once and for all. She has killed thousands of us and murdered the remaining Council members. She cannot be let to continue". 

  
"I thought you had a new Jedi Council".

  
"There is one but it isn't fully formed yet. We cannot expose ourselves until we vanquish the Sith Triumvitare. We do not have the forces to confront them like before. We need strategy and you're an excellent warrior Saul. I need you". 

  
"No you don't. You can do this just fine on your own".

  
She shot him another dubious look, "you saw something, didn't you?" 

  
"The future always changes Meetra".

  
"Did you or did you not?" She demanded.

  
"It isn't relevant at the present moment. I'm just stating that a General, who fought in the Mandalorian Wars and won, shouldn't have any trouble standing up against Sith". 

  
"I had an army behind me, Saul. I don't have anyone else now".

  
"I'm sure the Force won't forsake you now, Meetra. Aid will come to you. Besides, my old friend, you seem to have a way to find allies in the most inexplicable places", before she interrupted him, he added, "but I'm not one of them", the female Jedi scowled. "I have other duties I must attend to", he said and tapped at the girl's link. Hazel responded straightaway and receded her shield for a second. Enough time for the Jedi to feel them. She gaped at the presences engulfing the Master's. She couldn't believe it. The fact that the Master had consented their presence in such a precarious conversation was a clear sign of his position in this. 

  
"You are letting them cloud your judgement", her tone sharpened a bit and he didn't miss it. He frowned at her as she regarded him accusingly, "you shouldn't let them stop you, Saul. They are not your life, just part of your responsibility as a Master".

  
"I made a vow to them. I won't break it".

  
"If you want them to be prepared, why don't we take them to the mission then? It could serve them. They wouldn't even need to get through the Trials. They'd be Knighted immediately!"

  
"Absolutely no" he refused and stood up, "I'm not risking their lives for this".

  
"Saul, it's part of their journey as pupils!" She met him before he turned to the door. She placed a shield on the door and he had to retrieve his hand from the knob before the shield closed on him. "Listen to me", she said, "this isn't your life. You are a Jedi above everything else, Saul, not their father. I can feel the conflict within you. I know what Kraia's done to you, but you cannot use her words against the Order! You swore your allegiance to them, not to your Padawans!"

  
"And look where it got us!" He growled, abruptly wheeling around. She remained impervious. "We've been forced into hiding due to their stupid decision! And you still want to rebuilt the very same thing that brought destruction upon us?"

  
"Are you turning your back on them?"

  
"No. But I'm not waging their wars either. If the girls desire to become Jedi, I will not stop them. But it will be their choice, not mine. As I said, I made a promise to them and I will see it through the end. But I won't get involved more than I already am". 

  
"You're training them to serve the Republic, Saul, not the Order itself. We are Peacekeepers, remember? We owe our loyalty to democracy". 

  
Saul laughed sardonically, louder than necessary. He couldn't give credit to his ears.

  
"Serve the Republic, you say?" He laughed again. "I see. And where did that get you, my old friend? Did the Order pat you in the back for your good work and let you keep your lightsaber? Or did you stab a statue with your sabre in rebellion of their sentence and spent a decade in exile. I'm curious. Do tell me", he added in pure spite. 

  
The Jedi Surik stared at him sadly. She didn't feel anything else but sadness. A gloomy aura that revolved around her as she took in every word the Master said to her. He had lost his faith and she couldn't do much to restore it. Not even the girls' training had done so. If he had accepted them and continued their education was because of his attachment to them. He couldn't let them go. But otherwise, the girls would have been directed into another path. It seemed hard to understand for Surik, a Jedi who had lived by the Jedi's principles her entire life---but she also understood that Darth Traya, who once used to be Master Kreia, had unhinged the Master's point of view. He had been ocular witness of the Council's decision towards Surik. Any Jedi, already rattled by the Council's choices in the past, wouldn't endure such treachery. To Master Saul, the Jedi were ran by the Council; to Surik, they were driven by the Force. They had different opinions both were convinced about and no amount of talk would make them reconsider. So Surik made her leave. 

  
"Just don't forget we are agents of the Force, Saul". 

  
"I will when you leave my house", he retorted. 

  
He escorted her to the door and at the threshold, Surik cast a last glance around the apartment. It was a pretty homely place. He had definitely put a lot of effort on it and the girls hiding in the bathroom seemed satisfied with it. Surik was genuinely happy for Master Saul. Despite his lack of compassion for the Jedi Order, he still had an honest heart and a motivation to carry on. Surik thought that perhaps in the future, the girls could change his mind. He loved them dearly. She had never seen such devotion in a master before. And though forbidden, _that_ might be the final touch for the Master's change of heart. She hoped so. Losing Master Saul would leave a great void in the Force, especially if he decided to severe his connection from it. 

  
"I hope you come back to us", she said before she exited, "we will always welcome you in the Order, Saul. May the Force be with you".

  
He only nodded and she left. 

  
He closed the door behind her and pressed his forehead against it. He remained like that for a moment as he regained control of his swirling emotions. The girls had wisely retreated from his mind and left him alone with his ricocheting thoughts and his drumming heart. He never thought he would do such thing. He had just dismissed an opportunity to reconstruct the Jedi Order he had esteemed so much in the past. How could he? By the Mandalorian Wars, he was one of the Masters who concurred with the Council's resolution. He regretted it later and begged the Council to send their troops to the field, but despite his retraction, it doesn’t take away the fact that he stood by their side when they issued the mandate to the rest of the Order. He had part of the blame for their extinction, and yet he didn't want to do anything about it. 

  
He felt as if another person had possessed his body, just as Darth Traya did, and made the decision for him. His old self, a true Jedi Master, would have never rejected Surik's plans. He'd have taken the children with him, given them lightsabers, and would have gone straight to the war. To the front. To fight for his people and his beliefs. But, instead, he had opted to stand down and marooned Surik. The one who had been betrayed. 

  
Betrayal. That was the cause for his twisted opinion of the Jedi. 

  
He just couldn't unseen what they did to Surik. He couldn't forgive them. What if they did the same again and this time to his pupils? Would he be able to relinquish his oath again and watch as the Jedi Order collapses for the second time, bringing down the very children he helped train? Would he let the Sith strike them down? He couldn't. How could he? He had Sarisa since she was born and Hazel for almost eight months. And both felt like his own blood. How could he forsake them if the Jedi decide something against their moral code? He didn't want the children to suffer the same fate as his former Padawans did when they joined the Revanchists. He spent so much time grieving for them. How could he endure the loss of any of the children he had by his side now? 

  
"Master", Hazel timidly approached him. 

  
He shifted to see her and smiled at her. He wasn't fooling anybody with that smile but he let it rest there.

  
"Yes?"

  
"Sarisa says it's time for dinner". 

  
He followed Hazel to the dining room. The table was set, including the frequent deserts that seemed to reside on it now. He sat down along with the girls and began eating. 

  
In silence, he observed them for a brief moment. Discreetly, he gazed at their young faces just to save each unique feature of theirs into his mind. Before, he never allowed himself to do this. He was afraid that he'd get more dependant of them than he already was, but at this point he didn't care anymore. He just enjoyed each special trait of them and felt proud about it. He had been lucky. He had found two bright suns in the Force when he wasn't even looking for them. Surik mightn't had noticed the powerful children he had by his side, because she herself was a stellar presence in the Force and had the potential to be the best in the history of the Jedi, but Saul could see it. He could see the two powerful beacons in the Force, overshadowing his own presence and other Force-Sensitive people he had the good fortune to encounter. It was truly marvellous and again, he felt proud. 

  
He should be. He had raised one incredible girl and was teaching the other to become the best there is. 

  
_But they are not your doing_, a voice reminded him.

  
He surely couldn't give all the credit to himself, could he? He might be against the Jedi Order but not against the Force itself. He had to admit its crucial role on the girls' disciplined training and moderate behaviour. He spent most of the time working, gaining income to pay for the rent, food and clothes, whilst the Force fully committed to the Master’s students. He didn't create them. The Force did. And what did Surik say? What did Hazel believe in? We're agents of the Force, both had pronounced. Hazel in her meditation sessions and Surik as her goodbye. The Force was the sole responsible for this family's unity, not his own endeavour. He provided for the house, but he didn’t involve himself much in their formation as he was supposed to be. If it weren’t for the Force, the children wouldn’t be what they are today. Surik was right. He had distorted his notions of the Jedi based on what? On three scarred Jedi Masters? Were they even the entirety of the Order for him to judge it by them? 

  
On a more important note. Was this the way to display his gratitude to the Force? Drawing them apart from Surik certainly wasn’t a way to do it, was it?

  
His brain began to spin. He had made a mistake. A big one and it embarrassed him. As old as he was, and as much as he had experienced, he shouldn't have acted the way he did towards Surik. Not for his disdain towards the Council but because he entitled himself the authority to choose for his apprentices. He could feel wounded by the Council's past actions but that didn’t give him the right to overrule the girls' desire. If his pupils wanted to fight for their beliefs, he should let them. They had the right to defend their own---the obligation actually if they considered themselves part of the Order. He couldn't restraint the girls just because of his bitter emotions to the Jedi. They weren't his as Surik had told him. They were children of the Force. They make their own choices and walk their own paths. Not the path Master Saul designated them to. To think like that was selfish and incredibly stupid of his part. 

  
He peered at the girls from behind his lashes and realised he wasn't making a good figure of himself as he remained silent after the argument he let them behold.

  
"Do you girls feel ready?" he asked them sheepishly. 

  
Both girls exchanged looks and then nodded at him.

  
"We won't be alone, will we, Master? You’ll be with us", Sarisa said.

  
"True", Hazel smiled at him.

  
"I mean we don't have lightsabers yet. Neither of us have our Padawan braids, nor any suitable robes for travelling. So in that sense, we're terribly unprepared", Sarisa elaborated and Hazel nodded again, "but beyond the superficial stuff, I don't think we're that lost, Master. You have taught us well".

"Quite", Hazel beamed at him once again. 

"Of course, if you don't deem us fit for battle, then I don't see the point in hurrying", Sarisa continued and Hazel couldn't stop shaking her head in agreement. "I'm sure in the future there'd be plenty of blood-shedding. If we're too young, then we shouldn't act hastily". And then he wondered why it was hard to prevent the strings of attachment interlace among them. He had such wonderful children under his care. 

  
"It's a very dangerous mission, young ones", he warned. "War is not an easy thing to fight. You two will be severely outmatched". 

  
"Well Master", Hazel cleared his throat, "if it's any consolation, I'm running to other way as soon as I see a Sith, what do you reckon?"

  
He snorted."That might actually relieved me", he confessed. 

  
"You don't need to put us right in the middle of the battle, Master. We can fly ships you know. Keep the engines running for a swift escape, and so forth", suggested Sarisa.

  
"Indeed, Master. I'm sure your presence will suffice. We will be there more as a support than actual warriors".

  
"Yes. Medical Corps!" exclaimed Sarisa excitedly and Hazel bounced in her sit in the same enthusiasm.

  
He arched his brow impressed at the suggestion. That actually would be quite useful. 

  
"You still need your lightsabers, though", he pointed out.

  
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Hazel jumped, "Let's harvest our crystals".

  
"Finally", Sarisa huffed. 

  
Master Saul smiled at both girls and nodded. It was about time indeed.

  
"To Ilum it is then". 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a ridiculously long time to finish this chapter, I swear.  
Sighs.  
Well thank you for reading this far.  
Have a good day.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heavily based on The Gathering episode of Clone Wars and the book The Jedi Path.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if I'm taking too long. Life gets in the way when you least expected it.  
This chapter is a bit long. I finished it a week ago but as I said, life likes to slap you in the face  
every now and then. 
> 
> I apologise, as always, for any mistakes. Please let me know to fix them.

_Emotion, yet peace,_ to act in control and not desperation. To see the actions of others through the Force and not judged them by our own eyes. 

  
_Ignorance, yet knowledge_, to learn and not give in to fear, because fear leads to the Dark Side.

  
_Passion, yet serenity_, not to act out of passion but in peace. To remind ourselves that our service is not to few but to everyone. 

  
_Chaos, yet harmony_, to see the will of the universe and the threads that bind us all together. 

  
_Death, yet the Force_, to understand that we as agents of the Force, as mere shades, are insignificant next to the cosmic energy that surrounds us. Death is not to be mourned. 

  
The Jedi Code summarised by Hazel Reidia. 

  
She signed the last page of her journal and closed it. She hugged her little journal gifted by Sarisa and Master Saul and let out a deep sigh. At last, after eight months, she had finally completed her journal about all her understandings of the texts her Master had given her. It took her a while to fully comprehend everything and to cast aside all residual traits of her old personality, but now she felt ready to be a Jedi. Although she still had more to learn and wasn't half done with her Jedi education, she still had given a big step to be something greater. She wasn't a mere slave anymore. In any second now, she could be a Padawan of Master Saul. And perhaps, in the near future, she could be a Jedi Knight. A servant of the Republic. A bright light in the Force used to do good in the galaxy and bring order. She had the chance to be what she always thought every time she found a lightsaber in the markets in Tatooine. A Peacekeeper. 

  
Wasn't that the best the Force could offer you? 

  
She thought it was. 

  
At this hour, she should be meditating but she decided to go outside and grab something to eat. She had spent hours in her chambers already, a change of scenery wouldn't do bad. And no, her viewport couldn't provide that to her at the moment. They had already made the jump to hyperspace and the continuous flow of the tunnel bothered her eyes, so no, she needed to get out of the chamber and find Sarisa and her Master. She didn't mind travelling at all but it unsettled her nonetheless. So, food. 

  
Outside, Master Saul and Sarisa were bundled in the corner table of the communal space, both immersed on some sort of plan laid on it. Their caff forgotten as they dived deep into the blueprint. Must've been quite an important thing, otherwise they wouldn't have let their caff go cold. They were addicted to it and nothing but foreseeable danger could make them overlook their favourite drinks. As she got closer she understood. 

  
Strategy. 

  
Master Saul had frequently mentioned the paramount necessity of being a good strategist, tactician, planner, etc, in periods of warfare. The Jedi Knights had to be cunning warriors. If everything else failed, they couldn't. They had to be able to formulate schemes unfathomable to regular people and mobilise entire armies in order to achieve a sole goal. Victory. They had to know how to view an scenario, pinpoint its weaknesses and exploit them for their benefit. How to infiltrate enemy soil and come out with minimal casualties. How to navigate through cruisers shooting at you and not only survive, but defeat them as well. They had to be everything the Republic's army couldn't be. And that could only be achieved if they studied and put their trust in the Force. After all, not all is about wits but their own connection to the Force that could ultimately checkmate the battle. 

  
Evidently, the Jedi Order would never tell you that. They'd tell you, you are a Peacekeeper, not a soldier. They'd tell you to study political strategy and so on. But at the end of the day, when the Republic is falling and they have no exit but you, that's exactly what you turn into. A soldier. A private. Jedi might be bestowed with the authority of a General or Commander, but you're still a part of an army. Leading it and guiding it through success. But still a soldier. 

  
Master Saul learnt that in the Mandalorian Wars and he passed it on to the children. Sadly, history likes to repeat itself and one way or another, there will always be war in some corner of the galaxy. So, whether the Order decides to act on it or not, the Jedi Knights will have to go to war and conquer it. And that's the reality Hazel and Sarisa will have to live in once they grow old enough and are sent to the field. Soldiers. Freedom fighters. That's what they were. 

  
_Soldiers with fancy blades_, Master Saul once said. 

  
That comment stroke a wrong nerve in Hazel but she kept it in mind. She couldn't question her Master.

  
"Do you mind if I interrupt?" asked Hazel. 

  
"By all means, Hazel, do join us", Master Saul gestured her to sit next to Sarisa and she did. 

  
"So, what is this about?" She surveyed the blueprint for a second and realised that was a cruiser. One of the enemy she supposed. Sarisa and Master Saul had already doodled on the map, circling specific parts and writing annotations on top of them.

  
In the past months, Hazel had studied the characteristics and mechanics of freighters, fighters, shuttles and cruisers; and had also written about them in her journal, but she wasn't an expert. She had knowledge which enabled her to fly if the chance ever comes around, but besides that she couldn't do much. She wouldn't get lost in them though, she'd know where to go and which turn to make. But once again, it wasn't her forte. The odds of crashing were quite high. 

  
Sarisa, on the other hand, had better insight about it. She had spent more time than Hazel studying the same books and experimenting on Master Saul's private freighter. She had even made some personal modifications on it. And it seemed to have paid off, the ship's engines ran smoothly, even at the jump of hyperspace which could distress even seasons pilots. She had done a good job and Hazel had to admit her friend's impeccable skills. 

  
"Just revising this blueprint", he rolled it and then turned for his backpack. He rummaged with it for a second and then pulled two boxes from it. The girls just stared at him bemused. "I actually wanted to give you this", he handed them the boxes, each marked with their names, "a present for both of you". 

  
They opened them and found their Jedi robes. Not the usual ones they had seen in their texts or the ones they were using, traditional beige robes---no. Master Saul had presented them with their own original robes, each made particularly for them. Hazel's robes, the inner tunic and the tunic were a chocolate brown, same as the fitted pants and the boots, but the outer tunic transcended all of Hazel's expectations. Shaded in a pale cream, the fabric had a beautiful flower pattern, invisible to the naked eye, but if examined it carefully you could notice the distinctive decoration in it. A very pretty detail Hazel would have missed if she hadn't had the lights on of the table. As final touch, the cross of the outer tunic wasn't loose, it met precisely on the waist, tightened by the obi or sash that adjusted perfectly to her shape. As skinny and short as she was, she didn't want loose robes, and she actually was thinking on making her own robes but her Master had beat her to it. He had given her clothes that exquisitely moulded her body, and that even made her look nice. She couldn't have asked for something better. 

  
She was so ecstatic she couldn't stop herself from assaulting her teacher with a hug. Sarisa followed suit, both of them squealing and jumping in pure happiness. They thanked their Master several times until he gently pushed them away. They had to remember their training and sat down again. They didn't stop beaming at Master Saul though, they were too cheerful to stop. And Master enjoyed it while it lasted.

  
Then, Hazel checked Sarisa's robes. Quite plain but lovely. Black inner tunics, fitted dark pants and boots, and as Hazel's, an outer tunic of a colour that suited her friend. An elegant deep indigo blue, engraved with a minimalist pattern. Hard to perceive but present. It danced through the fabric like leaves branches, converging on her chest as if they blossomed from her heart. It was so beautiful, she couldn't believe it. This was just a perfect gift, they really couldn't ask for anything more. 

  
"I shouldn't take the credit", Master said, "Rajnee did most of it". Rajnee was the Togruta owner of the dessert shop they used to go. The girls had grown quite fond of her, she treated them kindly even when she didn't know much of them. And she did tend to give them free cakes every now and them, so a big plus indeed. They just didn't think she'd reciprocate their feelings or that she'd help Jedi for that matter. "She picked the colours and the fabrics. I just sent them to be made". 

  
"She knows you're a Jedi, then?" asked Sarisa.

  
"Yes", he nodded and proceeded to explain them about the Togruta they thought to be a shop owner but that turned out to be an ex-member of the Order. 

  
The girls gaped at him, astounded, during the entire ten minutes he spent talking. Ranjee was recruited since infancy, trained as an Initiative but after the tests, she decided to leave the Order. Not because no one picked her as a Padawan, but because she realised she didn't want the life of a Jedi for her. Master Saul wanted her as his Padawan but she refused and abandoned the Temple. After that, they kept in touch and at the eve of the Purge, she sheltered Master Saul and Sarisa(the girl was aware of the assistance of a friend of Master Saul, but had no idea it was Ranjee). _She_ was the one who found the apartment they had lived for the past eight months, and introduced Master Saul to the city Medical Centre, where he worked daily. She placed herself near the apartment in order to keep an eye on the girls when Master Saul was gone, and it was _her_ presence that distracted others from the girls. Fortunately, they never needed it but she _sprawled_ her signature in order to cover for them. She basically kept them alive and kicking and neither of the girls had a clue about it.

  
They felt awful. They had gone, left the apartment and hadn't even said goodbye to someone who had done so much for them. The girls protested. How dare Master Saul not tell them this? They had spent so much time by her side and not a single word had been uttered in her favour. 

  
Hazel had no remind herself about Serenity and not to put her own priorities above the Republic's and the galaxy itself. Only through a moment of brief meditation, she relaxed and understood Master's discretion. It'd have been harder for them to say goodbye if they had known the entire story and her sacrifices for them. Ranjee had chosen that path for her, and there was nothing that could be done to amend it. On the other side, the girls still had a long road ahead of them. Ranjee had seen that and decided to cooperate with her Master to precisely give them the chance to continue that road. A matter of significance. 

  
It took longer for Sarisa to grasp Master's test but she passed at the end. She understood and silently prayed for the Togruta's welfare and closed that chapter of her life. Their times as Initiative was gone. They had to move on, including from the people who helped them achieve this point of their lives. 

  
They landed a klick away from the Temple. Surprisingly enough, there were no adversaries nor anything blocking their entrance. It seemed so peaceful in this part of the galaxy. It did relief them not to deal with anyone at the moment. They had come to this place for a special ritual and a sacred ceremony of the Jedi. They shouldn't be interrupted. 

  
The blizzard challenged their trajectory. Despite their efforts to come prepare and have appropriate clothes for the extreme weather, it made it hard. And to their dismay, a hailstorm kicked in. They had to run to the colossal crystal plateau, their temple's gates, and frenetically look for a place to hide for a moment. Once they found a good spot, Master told them about the secret to open the doors. Not a secret to be sincere, the girls expected nothing less than to use the Force in unison to unlock the gates. It worked splendidly. 

  
Inside, a vaulted-ceiling area welcomed them. Statues angled diagonally guarded the Jedi symbol at the centre, surrounded by other pillars of similar height. Further ahead, a gigantic ice door stood to protect the cave. The temple had been built inside the very tableland, bearing the entrance of the kyber crystal cave. It shielded it from unsavoury visitors or the likes--and it made it look gorgeous. The girls didn't know what to expect but they certainly didn't expect a castle made of glass. 

  
"I want to talk to you first, if you don't mind", Master Saul ushered them at the middle and summoned three square rocks. The girls sat down and took out their lightsabers parts. They settled them between them. "This is a very important day for you, children, and we don't have much time to savour it but there are things that cannot be left unspoken. So please, pay attention to me as we go over a few things sometimes Masters forget to instruct". 

  
That seemed promising. The girls liked the mystery and both excitedly waited for him. 

  
"The Kyber crystal is a complex system we, as Jedi, need to fully understand in order to properly use it and reach to its full potential", he recited. "The crystal isn’t just an ornamental rock or even a useful tool, it’s what connects the Jedi's soul to the Force. An spiritual connection that help us centre ourselves and find balance. Do not fool yourselves into thinking the crystal is just the core of your sabre and nothing more. It _sings_ to you, my children. It helps our mind to cut through the physic press of the Force, to help us stay focused on the light. As years go by, you will realise the Force is a presence hard to ignore during battle. It can scream at you and be so loud at times that it can escape our grasp. Our lightsabers, the crystals, are the the only way to channel those moments into our advantage instead of overwhelming us. It's a harmonious work. You pump strength to the crystal and in return it soothes your mind, hence, making battles a lot easier for us. This is why the Jedi are such good warriors.   
>>But make no mistake, children, as our sabre is also a symbol of the Jedi and an useful aid, it can also be a burden. It reminds us of the abilities granted to us, by the Force and by our training. The weight of the hilt in your hand, is the weight of our responsibility to the Republic, the galaxy and the Force itself. If handled by a reckless owner, the results can be quite disastrous. Therefore, carrying a lightsaber in our belts reminds us that our abilities can be sacred, can be useful to the Republic, but they can also be highly dangerous. That's why we disciplined ourselves not to be driven by passion or any aggressive emotion. Serenity as the Code mandates. If we do not harness our powers, it will lead us to the Dark Side. And the Dark Side is a path to endless suffering. A path I wouldn't wish for any of you. 

  
"Is this why you told me the Jedi sometimes can be easily influenced by the Dark Side?" Sarisa asked. 

  
"Yes", Master's shoulders hunched and he sighed. "It is intoxicating, young ones. You graze the Dark Side and it _will_ trap you in its clutches. This is why the Council rejected the Republic's pleas during the Mandalorian Wars. We had seen prior to that, how ridiculously fast and easy a Jedi can fall to the Dark Side. If not properly conditioned for war and in full control of oneself, it can ruined us. You see so much death, corruption and indecency, that a person trained to do good and preserve life instead of killing it, can be perverted. It is very, _very_ hard, children.   
>>By the Great Sith War, we engaged in battle, but we overestimated our own people and it backfired on us. It brought nothing but pain and death. Of course, there are better ways to solve a problem than refusing to act on it. Hiding isn't the Jedi Code and nor should ever be. However, the Order is not wrong to be scared of the Dark Side either. It is an ugly road, full of thorns and fire, and it takes a lifetime to be cleansed of it. 

  
"Is this why you didn't want us to participate in this war?" Hazel inquired. 

  
"Before the Purge, our younglings were sent to the front as reinforcements. While some of them were incredibly resilient, the majority met a tragic fate. Some survived, others didn't, and it scarred them for life. Once the Dark Side has its hooks on you, it's something you have to watch out for always. Mediation or not, you cannot flee from it", he paused for a second and lowered his head, "and I don't want the same happening to you. There are no Jedi, not anymore, and you two our only hope".

  
"What do you mean? We thought Jedi Surik had a Council formed", Sarisa's voice quaked. 

  
The Master's presence pulsed in agony in the Force and Hazel tensed. This had to be horrible news or the Master wouldn't be so afflicted by it. The girls exchanged panic-stricken looks for a second and gulped. Did he mean it _literally_? They understood their duty as the younger members of the Order, the knew what they had to do. But they had a solid base already. Jedi Knight Surik being part of it. If they had lost more Jedi, then this definitely had gotten a lot worse. To rise the very foundation of the Order and build it brick by brick was certainly something they didn't prepare themselves for. They would do it. They wouldn't hesitate to carry the Order on their shoulders and sacrifice their lives for it. If the Force willed it, then so be it. But, once again, that didn't mean it didn't unnerve them. 

  
Could they really be the_ last_ two apprentices of the Force? 

  
"There hadn't been confirmed reports yet", Master sighed, "but rumours have reached to Surik that perhaps her Jedi Council has been disintegrated. As in every sense of the word, evaporated". 

  
Their eyes rounded in horror. How could that be possible?

  
"She shouldn't have come to the apartment", he lamented, "she lost time going back and forth and it costed the lives of her friends".

  
"We're very sorry, Master", Hazel susurrated.

  
"Death, yet the Force", said Sarisa under her breath and Master and Hazel nodded in agreement. A Jedi does not mourn the dead. They are now one with the Force. 

  
"Well. Enough time has been lost. It is moment to harvest your crystals, children". 

  
Master Saul got up and stretched his arms to the domed ceiling. Through an open window, the faint sunlight filtered through the middle crystal to the others surrounding it, until one beam redirected the light to the frozen door opposite them. The ice melted into a river, burbling down a short flight of stairs and circling the Jedi symbol they were standing on. Once the door revealed itself, Master Saul signalled them the entrance. A small entrance compared to the massive gate.

  
"Remember children, the Force will guide you in this journey", Master Saul said. 

  
The two girls entered and began their short adventure in the cave. 

  
  


  
***  
Hazel understood the delicate coexistence of good and evil inside a person. Feed one of them just a little bit more than the other, and the balance was broken. Give yourself to anger and you'd ensue disequilibrium not to yourself but to the Force as well. Hate your enemies and let despair consume you, and you get a lopsided scale. It was just that simple. So, _so_ painfully easy. At first, she thought the path to the darkness was a rigorous one. One where you had to intentionally _swerve_ and meet its deleterious might. But she had gotten wrong. Very wrong. Of course some people do it consciously, but in their case, it wasn't like that. A cornered situation between death and life, between a friend or a foe, between her loved ones and the enemy, and she could lose herself forever. Even the war could derange her mind and her point of view. Master Saul said that _being_ in the battlefield and witness the destructive consequences it brought could disturb someone so much that it dislocated their place in the fabric of the Force. What if something like that happens to her or Sarisa or even Master Saul? 

  
So intoxicating, he had said. Its power was intoxicating and addicting. One taste of it and it would trap one in its shackles. Forever. 

  
With that in mind, she understood the Jedi's prohibition for attachment. That fierce love for a particular person could bring down everything you've worked for. Again she imagined if someone were to hurt Sarisa or Master Saul. Would she draw her strength from the light side or would she pick the easiest way to defeat her enemy? That's why Jedi couldn't make attributions to themselves. They were all a speck of dust within the universe, they didn't have the right to claim people's lives as their own and kill others protecting them. That right belonged to the Force, not the mere shades that they were. 

  
Revenge is not the Jedi way, Master Saul mentioned once.

  
Maybe that's why the Jedi deemed Form V of lightsaber combat as inappropriate. Such brutal strikes could overpower one and what if those strikes weren't strong enough? Would you tap the Dark Side in order to gain dominance in a duel? Or would you diminish the intensity of your blows and pull from the Light? 

  
"What Form did you practise, Sarisa?" Hazel wasn't an expert in lightsaber combats at all. She had trained the basic Form I and sometimes Form III, the latter only due to the meditation it requires in order to master it. But now, she regretted her negligence. Knowledge couldn't earn her a victory out of the blue. She needed an agile body and a cunning mind. How could she best a Sith if she barely had any training at all? 

  
"Form V", Sarisa shrugged, "I thought that due to my youth, inexperienced and height I needed a more offensive and violent combat approach. How could I come victorious if I'm only on the offence? I could have practised Form III but I don't have the stamina to do it. I rather project my strength and my Force abilities into a more brief straightforward attack. But I feel ashamed now", she sighed. 

  
"You didn't do it with the wrong intention. I don't think you should feel ashamed", Hazel reasoned. 

  
"No but don't we rely on the Force? I didn't think of the advantages the Force might give me if I practised another Form. I just chose the most _effective_ according to my sight". 

  
"Well the Sith bend the Force to do their bidding, including vanquishing their enemies, so employing the Force in your combat might not be as subtle as you think. Perhaps a violent method as Form V might be the only thing enough to beat them". Hazel was just excusing her friend at this point. 

  
"Or just---", and the ice cracked beneath Sarisa. Hazel flung herself to catch her but she barely held her for seconds before her fingers slipped from her grasp. Hazel screamed terrified as she held Sarisa's panicked stare for a fraction of a second, until the darkness of the cave enveloped her friend and not even the echo of her shouts could be heard. 

  
Hazel stared at the dark abyss under her and she lost it. She called for Sarisa over and over again but no reply came nor any sign that hinted her friend's welfare. What if the fall was too high? Was if there was only iced water below and no shore? What if there were ice formations sharp enough to damage her? What if there were creatures somewhere there? What if she collapsed close to one of them? She couldn't leave her alone. She had to do something, she had get her out of there. 

  
She sat on the edge, her legs dangling in the emptiness, and took a deep breath. She summoned the Force to cushion her landing and leapt into the void. The Force cradled her as her feet touched the ground. She groped for her glow rod in her utility belt and as she found it, Sarisa's presence pulsed in the Force. She began sprinting in no time, her friend was close, she could feel her. But as she advanced, her friend's presence vibrated once again and in a blink of an eye, it disappeared. Hazel halted, closed her eyes and focused on the Force, but she could only feel her Master's presence not so far from them and the millions kyber crystals spread across the cave. Her friend wasn't there. And then it came the agonising wail from her Master's signature. That stunned her. What was going on? She didn't understand. What was wrong? 

  
_Where's Sarisa?_, her Master asked, his voiced charged with sorrow.

  
_Master, I don't know! She fell and I'm trying to look for her but I can't feel her! Master, what's wrong? Is it the cave? _

  
_It does challenges you, Hazel. Focus on the task_, his presence calmed immediately.

  
_But Master!_ Her heart skipped a beat. He couldn't possibly order her to abandon her friend and move on to the crystal. That's impossible.

  
_Get your crystal, Hazel, or the door will close!_

  
_Mas---_, something sinister snaked through the Force just as her Master closed the bond. She staggered confounded. Was this a test of the cave? She didn't understand. Is this normal for everybody? To separate you from your friend and----?

  
_Serenity,_ her mind uttered. 

  
Oh dear, it was indeed a test. Her morbid sense of humour almost made her laugh on the spot. She preached about purging herself from her old traits and yet, here she was, attempting to save someone who might have been transported into another tunnel of the cave. The cave doesn't hurt you, it just _shows_ you your fears. Well, she clearly didn't understand attachment as she should and thus she needed to meditate for an entire year. Force, this really was going to drive her to insanity. Her Master had just talked to them about the Dark Side and here she was, losing herself in grief just because her friend went missing. It was like the information entered through one ear and exited through the other. She did take it seriously though, she was committed to the Force, but she realised then that by having her loved ones by her side she didn't feel the _issues_ of attachment. But now it was clear to her. She might meditate five times a day or even more, but it didn't grant her immunity at all. She still had strong feelings for her friend and her Master and the cave was making her understand how dangerous that could be. 

  
She reached out to the Force again and apologised to it. She got it now. She had made a huge error. Love is a more vicious motivator, as Master Saul had once said. She understood it now. She had let attachment driven her. A Jedi has to be selfless and she wasn’t. She rather risk everything for her friend than find her crystal to built her lightsaber. Perhaps in another circumstances, she wouldn’t have felt so bad but they were in a war. Jedi Knight Surik depended on their help to defeat the Sith and yet she almost threw it all away to find Sarisa. Her best intentions could be excused but not for a Jedi. If she didn’t learn to _detach_ herself from others, it would get harder as time passed. But she could improve. She could be better. She just needed time. 

  
_Don’t cast me aside_, she begged to the Force. 

  
Like magic, her crystal palpitated in the Force. It was precisely on the road she'd taken if Sarisa hadn't fall. She knew where to go then. She inhaled another intake of breath and headed to another tunnel. Her senses quickly found a way out. Her glow rod shed enough light for her to carefully place her feet on solid ice and not fall. One fall was enough for her lifetime. 

  
She had to do a little detour around the cave and after a while, she reached her crystal. It was in the most visible place you could ever think of. As she entered the cave, Hazel thought the crystal was buried somewhere underground or that she had to go to far to find it, but again she had been mistaken. It was just in the main road, right in the middle of a thin ice wall waiting for to be found. It reminded her she failed the cave's test. If she hadn't ran by impulse, she would be out of the cave by now. She definitely was going to have the longest meditation session ever after this ordeal is done. 

  
She called for her crystal and it flew directly into her hand. She examined it for a second, a small transparent piece of glass. To think such a tiny thing could hold so much power inside it. To think that was the key element for a Jedi's lightsaber. Somewhere at some point of her life she read about the small things that make the difference in the galaxy instead of the bigger ones. Perhaps it meant situations like this. Anyway, she had lingered enough time in the cave. She bolted to the exit, not worried about anything else. 

  
Outside, Master Saul smiled at her. As she closed the distance between them, Sarisa came running. Hazel heaved a sigh of relief. Well, that experience certainly was enriching. She still had much to learn and more to discern. But she knew the Force would stick by her side. As it always did. 

  
***  
_I sense...a great darkness_. 

  
One hooded figure and another Sith leapt towards a Zabrak Jedi. The Jedi, wielding two lightsabers, managed to hold both. Using techniques Hazel had never seen before but efficient enough to mortally injure one of them as the hooded one summoned the other's red lightsaber and continued the fight. The Zabrak began to hurl objects from the ruin landing pad, whatever he had at hand's reach that was big enough to slow the Sith down. But whatever he threw at the other, the Sith tore it apart with a slash of his lightsaber and carried on walking to the Jedi. 

  
One of the objects exploded and through the very flames, the Sith appeared aiming straight at the Zabrak. The Zabrak ignited both of his lightsabers but the Sith's ruthless attack disarmed him of one lightsaber. The Master lost his footing for half a second and the Sith was already there, slamming his lightsabers at him, one strike after another, with fierce strength. The Jedi did his best to contain him, but his wrist began to falter at the Sith's onslaught, and in matter of seconds, he breached the Jedi's defences. Both red beams criss-crossed the Jedi's waist and he stumbled backwards. To his death.

  
_Go... you must walk a different path._

  
Hazel gasped and snapped her eyes open. Her heart hammered against her chest in a painful sequence. She placed a hand to her chest and tried to take deep breaths to calm herself down. 

  
Enriching are the proteins, vitamins and calories(sometimes) in the food. Today wasn't. At all. If the cave's event hadn't pushed her a bit more at the edge of madness, this vision certainly did so. She read in her texts that sometimes the quest for the crystal could trigger visions of the future or something about the structure of the universe. But she was having these constant glimpses of her future of someone else's future in her meditation---not exactly as the text stated. She planned to have a moment by herself before assembling her lightsaber, just to gather her thoughts about the trial she did not pass, but she couldn't have any peace at all while she only witnessed the Zabrak's death over and over again. He suffered all types of deaths and all of them by the hands of the hooded figured in her vision. It made no sense. What did that have to do with her? It unnerved her. 

  
She desisted. If the Force didn't want her to meditate then fine, suit itself. She had a lightsaber to build. That was another meditation session though. She slumped on the floor exhausted. This day was not going as she expected it. 

  
At the communal space, Sarisa was modelling her new outfit. It hugged her figure so well--their Togruta friend really did a good job. It seriously was a pity neither of them could properly thank her for all that she did. It wasn't fair. But she had to remind herself that it was for the best. No attachments, Hazel intoned in her mind, no strings. 

  
"Try yours on!", Sarisa sent the box floating to her hands and gently pushed her inside of her chamber with the Force. Hazel had no other choice but to change clothes. She tried them on for the first time and surprised herself at the precise fit. Again, Ranjee had a good eye for these kind of things. When she presented herself in her new attire at her Master and Sarisa, both clapped, "you look great too, see?" Sarisa twirled her and clapped for the second time, "finally, we are worthy to be called Jedi".

  
"Sarisa, please, clothes does not make one a Jedi", Master said.

  
"But it's still important, isn't it? You didn't order us to basically worship our previous robes for nothing, did you?"

  
Master Saul sighed and shook his head. He had tough girls to train. 

  
"It is important to look the part", he corrected.

  
"Fine, we look the part now". 

  
"Would you just get on with your lightsabers? We do not have much time left and I'm sensing this mission is going to be harder than Surik predicted", he shrugged and left to the cockpit.

  
The lights turned off and both girls understood that was their cue to get to work. Hazel stayed at the communal space, she didn't want to enter her chamber for the moment yet, while Sarisa entered her quarter. She had a smaller one she built it herself. The freighter didn't have much space for rooms and since the family grew, they needed another area to rest. So, Sarisa suggested to have one built. She programmed the training droids to help her with the construction and in matter of six days, she had a pretty cosy place for herself. Master couldn't do much but let her have it.

  
The handgrip, the emitter matrix, the lens assembly, the power cell, and the focusing crystal or the kyber crystal, were the parts of a lightsaber. Master had, somehow, a cabinet full with them, except for the crystal of course, so a certain day both girls sat down in the basement, scattered all the parts around them and meditated to pick the perfect ones for their hands. It took them less than half and hour for them to gather the necessary items and finish the goal of the day. Now, as the girls tried to construct their lightsaber, each part felt familiar to them. They had practised this so many times, had memorised each part and its functions that, in a sense, it made it a lot easier for them to properly put them together. 

  
_Prep your ship captain, this is our fight. _

  
The hooded figure and the other Sith walked down the ship's ramp, both of them holding their lightsabers in their hands, ready to assault at any moment. The Zabrak Jedi this time stood next to a woman, a young woman, the pair also ready to respond. The ran to each other and soon lightsabers clashed, and sparks began to sparkle. 

  
_Go... you must walk a different path. _

  
The sound of broken glass alerted Hazel and dragged her back to reality. She wheezed at the sight she had just made. Several shattered glasses laid in a circle around her, pointed upwards presenting the sharp tip as a threat. Master Saul came out of the cockpit at once and frowned at the girl, the question implied in his expression. She had no idea what she just had done either but it scared her. Why was she seeing this? She didn't understand. Was the Force trying to tell her something and she was too dim to get it or was this simply another feature of crafting a lightsaber? 

  
"You're having vision, aren't you?", Master Saul collected all the glasses in a pile and with a flick of his hand he pulverised it. She cocked her brow impressed. That should come in handy someday. 

  
"I don't know, Master, I don't understand", she repeated the line that seemed to have been engraved in her vocabulary. "I'm having these---- I can't really say they are visions, but I'm seeing a Zabrak Jedi and another woman fighting Sith. Two of them. One escapes and the other dies. The Jedi I mean. But it's odd, why am I getting these visions now? It has nothing to do with me. I'm not even in the picture. I'm just an spectator".

  
"There must be a reason behind this, Hazel. But perhaps it is too early to know".

  
"Then why now? It's seriously disrupting my mediation and my lightsaber's construction". 

  
"Do not see them as a burden, Hazel", he advised, "the Force is showing you this for a purpose. Let's try something to appease your mind, alright?" She nodded and he sat in front of her. "Close your eyes", he ordered and she obeyed. Immediately flashes of the visions started to invade her mind. He mildly squeezed her shoulder and brought her back. "Focus on my voice, Hazel", he paused for a moment, waiting for her squirming presence to settle in the Force. "Visualise your shield. Remember I talked to you about the landscape of our shields?" She hummed in agreement, "See the desert of Tatooine in your head, feel it as clearly as you can feel your surroundings. Draw the city you used to live in. The markets, the underground houses, the dunes, farms... Construct it as you wish it." 

  
The picture of her home planet didn't take long to be completed. Her mind painted it exactly as she remembered: the Jundland Wastes, Mos Espa, the marketplace of said spaceport, and the Dune Sea. All the areas she had personally gone in the decade living there. It left a bittersweet aftertaste in her mouth at the scenarios eerily familiar to her, but it served the purpose. As she organised her shield, the sand storm that used to rage in her brain mellowed. Slowly it quietened down and it allowed her to perceive her thoughts better. Her Master didn't need to add anything more for her to know the next step. She reached out to the Force and with its help, she sorted every thought, emotions and memory into the sections placed by her. The market was her memory bank. The dunes her emotions, and Most Espa's houses her thoughts. Thoughts that could slide the doors open if she commanded it so. Emotions that could be massive as a dune but steady against whatever lousy weather her mind decided to be in. Memories that could be many as a the giant marketplace's stalls but not purchasable unless she ordered it so. And as a last touch, she steered her visions to the Wastes. The rocky region did better than anything else she had created in her mind to contain the vision and not lash out. She had to subdue its insurmountable influence it had on her, and nothing worked better than the canyons acting as mountains to imprison it. She could let it loose later, but for the moment she had another important task to finish and she couldn't wait any longer. 

  
She let the Force seal every quadrant of her shield, safely locking inside the content she had just poured within; and finally, opened her eyes. Her pacified presence impressed even Master Saul. She smiled at him in sincere surprise. Her body shifted to engulf the Master in a tight hug but she controlled herself and anchored her legs to the floor. No attachments. She put her shield to the test and though the winds mercilessly flagged the dunes, she again conjured the Force to help her dwindle the gales. It didn't completely go but at least it had reduced. 

  
Her Master beamed at her, a smile she had never seen before in him, and patted her back. 

  
"You're going to be an extraordinary Jedi, Hazel. You've done something no one has ever done before in just a couple of minutes", he congratulated her and stood up. "Finish your lightsaber, my young apprentice, the crystal is eager to meet its owner". 

  
Hazel eagerly nodded and he again entered to the cockpit. Perhaps the many hours of studying and reading had paid off. She might not have combat abilities as good as her Master's or Sarisa's, but she had a strong will. And nothing could prevent that will to achieve its goals. She felt good with herself. She had tried so hard and for so long to finish up her shield and at last, she had done it. It did hurt a little, trying to tow each thought and memories into places they normally wouldn't be, but it brought her endless peace at the end. No amount of credits could buy that sensation for you. 

  
She took advantage of the fresh connection to the Force she had just formed and pieced her lightsaber together. She had to feel each part in its molecular level in order to join them and she did. Something she never thought she could do but perhaps that's what the text meant about insights of the universe's structure. She didn't get to see anything as enlightening as that but she did feel something beyond her human understanding. She let the Force guide her, wedging each part to the other in perfect momentum, and minutes later, the hilt's rested on her palm.

  
The hiss of the lightsaber echoed on Sarisa's room and she knew both had finished. She ignited it and the blue glow bathed her dark skin under the unilluminated space. The crystal buzzed in her hand, as if it announced its presence to her. She admired it in sheer awe. So beautiful. No wonder Jedi believed their lightsabers to be their actual lives. She clearly thought so as she heard the steady rhythm of its_ breathing. _

  
Well, one thing more to tick off of today’s list. Just one to go. She switched off the sabre, clipped it in her belt and went to Sarisa's chamber. The door slid open and Sarisa stood in the frame, scaring Hazel. Hazel gasped and Sarisa giggled. 

  
"I'm sorry", Sarisa snickered, "I wanted to talk to you". 

  
"Me too". 

  
"Alright then. I'll bring more caff, you want some?"

  
"No"

  
Sarisa brought herself a huge mug of caff and both sat on the latter's bed. Hazel started first, she had practised this during the brief moments her meditation sessions weren't plagued by visions, so she knew what to say. She trusted her friend would understand her. She hoped so.

  
"At the cave, the Force showed me something, Sarisa", she began, "It made me understand something I thought I already did but apparently didn't". Sarisa's face remained so impassive it crippled Hazel's presence in the Force. She became anxious. "You're a good friend, Sars, I'm sure both of us would break the rules of the Order in order the save one another in case a mission goes south", Sarisa's bleak expression made Hazel fidget, "but there's a limit to that partnership, isn't it?" Again no expression. "We owe our allegiance to the Force and the Republic and only to the pair of them. Not anybody else. And I don't want you to feel something dark in case I don't respond your loyalty. You know I would if I have the chance and if there are no other priorities but you. However, you must to understand that, as Jedi, we do not serve just a few but the entire galaxy, and---"

  
Sarisa softly placed her hand on top of Hazel’s and the latter stopped. Instantly, she started to gnaw her lip. 

  
"We seem to share one brain cell, Hazel", Sarisa's brow creased in thought, "I understand your point. I actually wanted to talk to you about the same thing. Neither of us returned for the other. So I guess it's safe to assume that we care more for the Order than our personal interests. It's alright, really. I wouldn't be here if I thought that attachments were something to be ignored. I talked about this with Master Saul as well and he told me exactly what you said. We are servants of the Republic and of everything good in this galaxy. We do not serve people for our personal gain. So you did the right, and so did I. I'd break the rules for you too Hazel, you have become a very good friend to me but as you said, there are boundaries". 

  
Hazel couldn't have been more relieved. She sighed and smiled at her. Only a true Jedi would comprehend this and not be upset. Just as what Master Saul said about her, she said about Sarisa. She was also a great Jedi, if not the best one. For such a powerful Force user, she really was humble. Sarisa respected that. She couldn't ask for a better partner. 

  
"Thanks for understanding", Hazel said.

  
"There's nothing to understand, Hazel. It's our basic principle. I'm just glad both of us are humble enough to submit ourselves to it. Even Master Saul has problems with it. It's not easy at all. But I believe that if we start young, as right now, we might get comfortable with it in the future".

  
"Indeed"

  
Both shook hands and smiled at each other. Perhaps this was the path for a healthy and everlasting friendship. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***This helped me a lot to understand the crystal. Check if out and read it. I might have stolen a sentence. But I give full credit to this Tumblr account for this.  
https://gffa.tumblr.com/post/188549197175/you-crystalized-something-for-me-that-i-really
> 
> ***The vision is based on this. I'm considering the games part of Canon in my story. So yes, this is going to be happen at some point in the future.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm4JEZudf0c&t=215s


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm having a severe crisis right now, lol. Anyway this is the last chapter of the first arch of the story.  
I'm going to make some drastic changes in my story after this upload. I'm still not done yet but soon I'll be uploading more chapters, including a different prologue and other things.  
I hope it doesn't bother you. I had an idea in my mind but then I realised I could do so much more with the content I have and decided to expand my story a little bit. So yes, I'm going to add more stuff including a certain Sith I'm sure we all love.  
I dunno know exactly when but again I hope you stay with me for the changes. I'm very excited for this and it definitely will be drastic as I said but the story will carry on with the same theme anyway.  
Thanks for reading this, I really appreciate it.  
Please enjoy and, as always, correct me if I've made some mistakes.

"Dropping out of lightspeed", announced Master Saul.

  
A sense of vertigo germinated in Hazel. The tunnel stretched into white stripes that immediately shrunk to nothing, and the freighter was pulled planet-ward. Hazel, though, felt as if gravity had yanked her out of the ship and into the vacuum of space. And there's no gravity in space.She just felt horrible and had to admit to herself that flying definitely wasn't for her. And Jedi are supposed to be good pilots. She sighed, again she questioned her life choices. 

  
Master Saul and Sarisa controlled the board of the ship as if they were an extension of it. They flicked switches and pressed buttons, and in no time, had the ship rounding the planet and the space battle came into view. Hazel's jaw dropped to the floor. The very temperature increased in the Force, every turbolaser, every missile, every proton torpedo, every explosion---it heated the coldness of space. She may have not been able to feel it against her skin but the Force pulsed with heat, fright, horror and death. She remained transfixed in her seat, behind Sarisa, as her eyes, for the first time, spectated a true battle. 

  
_Being in the battlefield can perverse even the kindest of people,_ thought Hazel. And she understood why. 

  
Master Saul began to manoeuvre his way through the rain of coloured blasters, and suddenly, a red light flashed on the controls. Sarisa accepted the transmission and the hologram of Jedi Knight Surik appeared right in front of them. Sarisa greeted her as Master Saul focused on flying. Hazel could feel the goosebumps in her flesh. She wanted to shut down Surik's hologram and let Master Saul concentrate on the incoming lasers. Unnecessary distractions weren't welcome when you had enemy cruisers shooting at you. Clearly the Sith had realised of their arrival because several starships started to deploy from the main one and they were targeting them, and only them. She couldn't allow Master Saul's attention to be diverted from it. Still, there was nothing she could do, so she just fixed her eyes on the blurry image of Surik. 

  
"Master Saul and Padawans, we need your help. I regret to inform that one of our proton charges has detonated earlier than dictated. There are more in the missiles bay and---"

  
"Are you in the Ravager?" Master Saul asked. Hazel spotted Nihilu's flagship not far from them. Master Saul had already briefed them about it, so both were acquainted with the enemy's fleet as the Sith Lord inside it. Master Saul had told them enough about the Sith's hunger, and the reason of his assault of this planet. He wanted to feed on the Jedi Academy below and so he had to be stopped.

  
"Yes, Master Saul".

  
"I will board the ship in a few minutes. Wait for me".

  
"Excellent. Thank you Master. Be careful".

  
Swimming across the explosions and enemy fire turned out to be harder than Master Saul predicted. They didn't board the Ravager until ten minutes later. Sarisa and Hazel couldn't properly shoot without accidentally hitting one of the friendly vessels. It took them less than three minutes for them to realise this wasn't going to work. They needed something smaller and faster to navigate through this battle. They returned to the cockpit and Master Saul sighed at their presences. 

  
"You will board one of the Sith's small crafts, alright?" Master Saul ordered. "To confuse their tracking. They will believe you as reinforcements so play along. Later you can fire at will". 

  
"They must have advanced ships. I've never flown one of those", Sarisa remained calm but her presence in the Force said otherwise. Hazel didn't like that. If the expert between the two didn't like the odds, then Hazel didn't deem this wise at all. It would certainly create a major advantage for their allies but she could also crush into one of them and her short life was over. 

  
"You're a good pilot Sarisa. I know you can handle them. You too Hazel. You're a fast learner"

  
Hazel tried her best not to panic. She rather be part of the Medical Corps than a pilot. Master Saul sensed her restlessness and glared at her. Not an evil one, just a very _serious_ one. Hazel gulped. She wanted to slap herself for being such a coward. She was supposed to be Jedi, a warrior than ventures into war and comes out victorious. Why was she hesitating so much? Master Saul sensed her doubts again and patted her shoulder. 

  
"You can come with me if you want, Hazel. It's alright to be nervous". 

  
"Maybe I chose the wrong career", she blurted.

  
Master Saul chuckled.

  
"No, you didn't. You just need more practise. Both of you have been cocooned by the security of our apartment for months. It's normal to feel afraid".

  
Master Saul boarded the Ravager and a squad of Mandalorians received them(they were part of Surik's unit besides the ex-apprentice of Darth Nihilus). Their armours were so polished and shiny, Hazel couldn't help herself and poked one of the soldier's breastplate. The Mandalorian only tilted his helmet to her and his presence in the Force radiated amusement. Quite impressive than even non-Force-sensitive people could emit their emotions through the fabric of the Force---or maybe he was Force-Sensitive and didn't know. Interesting. 

  
The Mandalorians fed them all the requested intel and devised a plan from it as they escorted Sarisa to one of the Sith's fighters. Surik had tried to retrieve the proton charges from the missile's bay but Nihilus's forces intervened. They sealed the place from the inside and led the Jedi and her companions away from it. They managed to defeat them all but time was ticking. The charges' sequence had already started and unless they vanquished Nihilus first, there was no point in taking down an entire ship. Master Saul had to bring the charge from the bay or all would be for nothing. The girls' Master evidently assumed the responsibility for the operation and took Hazel with him. She tried her hardest to not display her relief. But she really was relieved. 

  
They reached the hangar and found it empty, a bit damaged but intact and without a single soul to stand guard. Sarisa hopped on one of three ships left and buckled up. Master Saul recited to her the usual stuff he did whenever the girls left the apartment, _be safe, don't engage unless absolutely necessary, do not attempt anything too daring, keep in contact, trust in the Force, let it guide you,_ etc. Sarisa vowed to obey, and in less than a sixty seconds, her fighter joined the combat in space. Master Saul's presence shimmered in the Force. He was sick worried and she had just departed. 

  
"You have quite a daring child", one of the Mandalorians commented. 

  
"She's my apprentice", Master Saul corrected. 

  
The Mandalorian just stared at him for a second and then nodded. He clearly didn't want to overstep, despite the situation being quite clear to him and the rest of the soldiers. Hazel turned a blind eye to the interaction and followed the rest of the troops to the missile bay. According to Surik, the core was there so they just had to find it and probably knock out a few guards. Nothing too fancy. 

  
As they got nearer to their destination, Hazel understood why there was no one in the hangar. The entire battalion of guards had been transferred to stand watch at the missile bay's door. She gaped at the number. Eyeballing you could count twenty in the large area adjacent to the corridor, there were probably more along it and some at the other side of the door. That was quite the amount of people to protect just one thing. Hazel again didn't like the odds. What if they had hidden the proton bomb? That'd be seriously unfortunate.

  
Master Saul commanded Hazel and the Mandalorians to stand back. The Mandalorians had already disclosed their plan to get rid of the guards but Master Saul disagreed. There was no need for bloodshed. Those guards were just following orders, they weren't the source of the problem. A more non-lethal approach should be used in this instance and Master Saul was adamant to get it done. Therefore, ignoring the Mandalorian's protests, he walked right into the middle of the legion of soldiers and knelt down. The Mandalorians screeched in horror but Hazel had faith in her Master. He knew what he was doing. It was a shame the Mandalorians didn't believe in the Force. They had travelled with Jedi Surik for so long that by now they should be praying to it. 

  
The guards got confused at the sight of the Master and in their puzzlement, they called for the others from the hallway. All of them together pointed their blasters and some their staffs to him but didn't attack him. They exchanged looks, still puzzled by the random man's behaviour---but didn't hesitate for so long. As soon as Master Saul opened his eyes, he flung his arms out and a wave from the Force erupted from him. It knocked every guard into the walls so hard that it fractured them. In less than three seconds, the men were scattered in the floor, neutralised, and not a single mortal injury in any of them. Non-lethal approach. Hazel smiled at her Master utterly fascinated. The Mandalorians lowered their guns as well. 

  
"Well", Master Saul stood up and palmed his robes, "I've always wanted to do this". 

  
"I take your word for it", a Mandalorian soldier said, shooting the Master a lopsided smile.

  
Just then, the Mandalorian's comm beeped. He answered and the hologram of their leader flashed on his wrist. He informed them that Surik and her partner Visas had already engaged Darth Nihilus and requested immediate back-up.

  
"Let's move", Master Saul gestured to the only locked door on the corridor. 

  
Both, Master and apprentice jabbed their sabres into the door and drew a large circle of molten metal. The door fell on the other side and the group got in hastily. The proton core laid there, untouched and safe. The Mandalorians and Master Saul began the procedure and activated the bomb and linked it to the others. The launch sequence wasn't supposed to be running. The Mandalorians tried to reset the sequence but it didn't work. Without time to waste, they just placed the bomb in another strategical place and dashed to the bridge. It had already passed twenty minutes, leaving them only fifteen minutes to spare. If they didn't want to be vaporised along with the ship, they had to finish Darth Nihilus promptly. 

  
Halfway there, the ship suddenly jerked in a violent movement and almost brought the group to their knees. They grabbed onto something as the ship groaned, lights flickered and alarms blared. Hazel interchanged glances with her Master and both's presences agitated in the Force. This was bad. The shields had been disabled and whatever had hit them had made a huge deal of damage. She lifted her gaze to the ceiling and watched in horror as the walls cracked. Another shake destabilised the ship and began to slowly slant. The lights burst in a shower of sparks and were instantly replaced by red emergency ones. 

  
"This is not good", one of the Mandalorians said, trying to steady himself as the ship bounced again. 

  
"Didn't you communicate with the Republic base?" Master Saul asked. 

  
"Yes, we did, Master Jedi", he muttered offended by Master Saul's question. 

  
"Let's get moving then". 

  
But they couldn't. The _slight_ inclination became half a spin in matter of seconds and dragged them down a random corridor. Another wall, which became their floor, halted their fall. Master Saul, who had been in several space battles and had seen cruisers getting hammered by opponents, had never been in this type of situation. Surely, ships can be broken and shields can be lost, but to have a ship of this scale leaning sideways was something he couldn't believe. Perhaps he had forgotten since most of the ships he had been in were normally blown to bits or sucked people to space. It still fazed him. 

  
"I've never seen a ship doing this before", a Mandalorian echoed the Master's thoughts. 

  
"Me either", he confessed, "it's troubling".

  
"We should move", Hazel said, her heart stuck on her throat. 

  
Master Saul and the Mandalorians concurred. They continued their way to the bridge as things and guards fell around them. Hazel kept her eyes straight to their destination. If she but peeked at the people slipping through the narrow halls or at the things denting the walls, she was certain she would suffocate. She started to feel claustrophobic since the moment they boarded the cruiser, this mess just threatened to make her episode worse. She regretted not joining Sarisa's side.

  
They arrived at the bridge, dimmed by the emergency red lights and the barrage of blasters and lasers filtering through the transparisteel. Hazel stared in awe at the Republic's forces desperately intercepting the Sith's fighters before they fully wrecked the cruiser. She understood the critical status of the cruiser. Probably Darth Nihilus or someone from inside had called a massive strike to their own flagship in order to kill the Jedi within. They had calculated their low chances of winning and decided to launch a suicide assault in order to trap everybody and just die with the infiltrated enemies. Basically a sacrifice from the enemy's point of view.

  
"This is bad", she whispered under her breath. 

  
Just across them, Surik and Visas fought against Darth Nihilus. She thought the adrenaline rush of the imminent danger or her lack of awareness had crippled her sense in the Force, but as she examined the Sith, she noticed she wasn't supposed to feel him. He was what her Master called a Wound in the Force, a void. He explained to the girls about the Sith's condition back in the freighter, told them about his origins in Malachor V during the Mandalorian Wars and about his endless hunger ever since, but she didn't fully believe it until she felt him in the Force. Not felt him but saw him. That black smear in the fabric of the Force that slithered across, leeching on whatever Force signature he could find. And to her surprise, the Exile shared the same picture. Her presence didn't boil in anger nor pierced in coldness as the Sith's, but it wasn't warm as Master Saul's or Sarisa's. It was a hollow that resonated with the screams of dying people. Hazel didn't sense this when she came to the apartment. Either something had changed in her or she concealed her true identity to them. Or perhaps Master Saul refused to see it. 

  
As a confirmation, something unexpected happened. As the group ran to the Jedi Surik and her companion, the Sith stunned both women and tried to drain Surik's Force from her. Yet the attack rebounded and hit him instead. He sank on his knees as he gasped for air, exhausted. Master Saul stopped dead on his tracks and glowered at Surik. The Jedi shifted to him with a pleading look on her face. Hazel frowned. Did she do that to the Sith? Could she_ feed_ off others as well? Master Saul's steely glint in his eyes confirmed one her questions. He hadn't been aware of the Jedi's _ability_. 

  
Master Saul didn't waited any longer. Time was loudly ticking on their ears so he struck. The Sith met his blow and got up, holding Master Saul's sabre at bay as he pressed hard against him. Hazel ignited her own, prepared to fight as well, but Surik and Visas intervened. The three of them started a dance of sparks and colourful beams. Hazel intended to cooperate, he couldn't abandon her Master in a moment like this, but the elegant blue and green streaks amongst the red ones as opposite sides of the Force collided, made Hazel just freeze in place and gape at the scene unfolding in front of her eyes. 

  
She had never seen Master Saul's combat skills before. Their training didn't count at all, since he was holding back the entire time, but in this moment as he unleashed his power against the Sith, he rivalled Nihilus' strength and talent, making him a challenge to him. And the Sith wasn't a poor duellist at all. If Master Saul's intel about him offered any insight of his expertise in slaughtering Jedi, then he definitely was a threat. Yet, there was something graceful and lethal about Master's Saul attacks that pushed the Sith to his limits. 

  
Right then, Mandalore grabbed Hazel's arm, awakening her from her trance, and silently pointed at the droid wildly beeping by the entrance. Hazel blinked several timed to understand the image. An utility droid, who had lost the ability to cope with organics' dramatic affairs, just screeched at the top of his circuits as he wheeled back and forth. He had quite a personality. He seemed to be having such a bad day that Hazel would've laughed if the circumstances weren't so dire. 

  
"Tinker with it", Mandalore ordered as he aimed his gun at the Sith, "he might have useful information for us".

  
Hazel wanted to protest. She wasn't any good at _tinkering_ with droids, she could barely fly, how could she achieve something even more complex than that? Sarisa was the genius, not her. But as she remembered her friend, she realised she had no idea about her whereabouts. Just then, behind the Sith and the three Jedi, a Sith fighter sped through the swarm of the same ships, obliterating each of them with a couple of laser shots. Sarisa indeed. No one in their right mind would dare to do such perilous stunt but her friend. The Republic fighters took their moment to react but soon they initiated a merciless fire sequence assisting Sarisa. As the Sith Lord struggled with the Jedi, the battle outside was won by the Republic and a limping fighter of a Padawan. 

  
_Show off_, Hazel muttered through their bond as she prowled to the droid. Utility droids could be quite nasty if one doesn't treat them properly so she tried to be gentle and careful. 

_I see you intent to showcase your Force skills to keep a cruiser intact as well, since I don't see you escaping_, Sarisa deadpanned. 

  
_Don't---_

  
"The bond", Master Saul flipped backwards before the red lightsaber hit him. 

  
Surik and Visas seemed to have understood the meaning of the short sentence and stared at each other. The Sith Lord blinded in rage didn't stop his brutal attacks, but something changed in the Force. The Jedi contained the Lord's strength not just as a manoeuvre of defence but as to stall him. Visas, especially, took a last look at Surik and retreated her sabre from the battle. Surik and Master Saul panicked, tried to turn to her but Visas impelled herself. The effect on the Sith Lord was immediate. He staggered as his presence in the Force shouted in pain.

  
The bond. 

  
Visas was apprentice of Darth Nihilus, Hazel knew that much, but she had no idea a Sith and their subjugates could hold Force Bonds. Didn't it take affection in order to create one? However done it, Visas' sacrifice exploited the bond and weakened the Sith immediately. Surik and Master Saul didn't let Visas' death go to waste and fuelled by Visas' selfless act, both Jedi increased their speed and strength in the battle. 

  
Hazel had just managed to shut down the droid after a couple of shocks that made her hair stand on end, and definitely messed her tangled mane, and the Sith collapsed on the floor. Hazel's brow creased in confusion. Whatever the Exile had done to him had worked well. It depleted him and finally brought his demise. It seemed quite fast to be frank but Hazel felt relieved nevertheless. The Jedi had vanquished the Dark Lord just in time to escape. 

  
"Let me see him", Visas begged as her trembling arm stretched to the Sith. Surik knelt beside her and caressed her hair. Her eyes brimmed with tears yet none were shed. 

  
"We need to go. We don't have time!" Mandalore bellowed in warning but Surik allowed Visas to have a moment. Hazel couldn't deny she was curious. 

  
Visas, close to her former Master, removed the mask and observed him for a minute. 

  
"What did you see?" Surik spoke gently.

  
"I feel the same I feel through you, Master", she rasped, "a graveyard planet".

  
Surik nodded. 

  
"But he was just a man". 

  
"He was", Surik murmured. 

***  
The utility droid turned out to be the most intelligent bucket of circuits they had ever met. Not even their training droids had such character, let alone the ability to slice through everything and get whatever information required. Truly impressive. The only downside of him was that he was also programmed to be an assassin droid. It wasn't complete though so he didn't have the tools to terminate everyone in matter of seconds but he did have certain sharp objects on his compartments inside his armour that effectively shocked Hazel as she tried to switch it off. What else could he have? They had no idea and weren't eager to figure it out either; but so far, he hadn't tried anything homicidal yet. He seemed to be quite friendly with them in fact. Either he was deceiving them or he truly had no intention to harm them. 

  
They hoped it was the latter.

  
When asked about his real purpose in the cruiser and his name, he explained a rather detailed resume that Hazel didn't understand. Sarisa and Master Saul though seemed to have caught a few bits of his long Binary speech and named him. Teefive. An upgraded version of the T-3 droid manufactured during the Jedi Civil War. Darth Nihilus himself made modifications on him and after so many layers of complicated programming, he decided to call him T-5. He was faithful to his previous Master and in that sense, it sort of scared the Jedi Master and the girls, but for some reason he didn't seem to be offended by his _kidnapping_ nor the destruction of his master's flagship.

  
"I think when you switched him off, you reset some of his programming", Sarisa deduced. "He still recalls Nihilus but he isn't loyal to him anymore. Whatever you did, it has worked for our benefit".

  
"You know I understand nothing of droids", Hazel countered.

  
"Well, I think you just won us a deadly droid", smiled Sarisa, "he is going to be most useful to be us, isn't that right Master?" Both girls turned to him but the Jedi had barely listened to them. His mind seemed to be far from the present. "Master?"

  
Master Saul sighed and faced them. 

  
"Yes?"

  
"We're talking about the droid", Sarisa said.

  
"Yes. He can stay with us as long as we wiped out the memories from his former master".

  
"I think those memories can be useful to us, Master. We might need some of his knowledge".

  
"No", Master Saul objected, "he might double cross us. We must secure his loyalty to us not to them. Wiping his memory is the best way to do it. I'm sure you can handle it Sarisa". 

  
"Yes, Master", she agreed.

  
"Alright then. I need to talk to you first. There's something you both need to know before we face Traya".

  
That's how he told them the truth about Darth Nihilus and the Exile. At the activation of the Mass Shadow weapon and the desolation of Malachor V, where they were heading at the current moment, Nihilus wasn't the only one who turned into a Wound in the Force, Surik did as well. In fact, it was her action that created the Sith himself and _her_ actions were the cause that brought them all to this precise present. The Council wasn't wrong when they condemned her for her past deeds. Master Saul had abandoned the Jedi Order before the culminating battle of the Mandalorian Wars, so he hadn't been there to witness Surik's trial nor felt the repercussions within her very Force Signature---he didn't even see it when she came by the apartment for his help due to his rage to the Council, but now he could. He felt it in his very bones. Back at the battle of Malachor V, he heard and sensed the death of everyone in Malachor V, it literally knocked him out, but he excused the Exile for it. She had done it for the greater good. However, now he thought differently. He didn't accuse her of anything and he still thought the Council should have forgave her, but he still couldn't unseen that horror trapped within her very body. Those screams still echoed in her chest as if they had been imprisoned there. Darth Nihilus fed on the Force but Surik had another problem entirely. 

  
He knew she was a good Jedi. A strong, powerful and compassionate Jedi, but she could bring consequences to the girls' mentality and their future. This wasn't something young girls should be exposed to. The impact Surik's Force presence had in Hazel was enough proof of the dangers of letting the girls close to her. It could reinforce the girls' training if both processed the events with the right mental attitude, but it could also damage them forever. Just as in wars, younglings could be either incredibly resilient or could fell deeper than Knights. It scared him.

  
He expressed his concern to the girls and offered them the opportunity to turn back now before it was too late, but the girls had no idea what to reply. Hazel wasn't the only one who felt the void in Surik's presence, Sarisa sensed it too even in the distance between her fighter and the cruiser, so both girls knew Master's worry wasn't in vain, but they also had a duty to the Order. There might not be a Council yet, nor any formed Order, but they were the foundation of it and if they didn't do anything, what good would they bring to the new Order? Each Jedi still alive would contribute something to the Order, and the girls had the responsibility to do so as well. They couldn't jeopardise their connection to the Force because of it, but they didn't think Surik would do such harm to them as to severe them from the Force. Besides they needed the lessons in order to grow. 

  
"It's just a proposition", Master Saul remainded them, "we're already on course to Malachor V and we're going to be exposed to even greater threats than before.... So I'm asking you to meditate on this. Be prepared. Surik might not be a menace but the planet might make her one. She could lose control and lash out, injuring any of you. And I do not want that to happen".

  
"We will meditate on this Master, but the Force is our ally, isn't it?" Sarisa smiled at him and held his hand, "I'm sure we will overcome this. You've trained us well Master". 

  
He sighed and nodded. 

  
"Alright then. Go to your chambers. I'll let you know when we arrive".

  
Master Saul didn't need to warn them. The ship itself alarmed both girls and made them ran to their cockpit. In the skies, a thunderstorm raged. The frantic winds swayed the freighter like a mere leaf. Master Saul and Sarisa tried to stabilise it but the gales were too strong and the high rock formations of the planet made it even harder for them to properly pilot the vessel. They couldn't manoeuvre without hitting something and scratching the ship more. They had already lost bits of the ship, they couldn't afford to crash land and wreck the entire freighter. They wouldn't have a ride home without it. 

  
A lightning bolt stroke one side of the ship and it shook it so badly, Hazel fell from her sit. Sarisa shouted orders at Teefive and the droid immediately obeyed. But whatever he did, it didn't help much. The droid wheeled from one place to another, doing Force knows what, yet nothing served. Master Saul, at last, told them to prepare for some rough landing. It ended being a crash. 

  
Hazel groaned, her head pounded, and as she opened her eyes she encountered Sarisa's blue ones. She sighed. 

  
"Good news, we aren't dead", Sarisa gripped her arm and helped Hazel sit. The girl nodded, rubbing the back of her head. Blood tainted her fingertips. Well, she really had hit hard. Master Saul arrived just then with a medical kit and bandaged her wound. Sarisa continued talking. "Bad news, we don't have a ship anymore".

  
Hazel snorted. Bad luck indeed. 

  
They strolled through the deserted planet for quite a while. Their comlinks worked but the storm interfered with the signals so they couldn't reach the other group, Surik included. They were on their own until random marauders began to appear. Master Saul and the young girls fought against each of them and as they advanced, they finally found Surik, also struggling against a gigantic monster. The rest of her companions had fan out so she was alone. Master Saul didn't even intend to assist her, he didn't let the girls intervene either, and to the apprentices' surprise, Surik managed to defeat the monster after a couple of strikes. 

  
"Thanks for the help", she said ironically. 

  
"Your welcome", smirked Master Saul.

  
"Alright", Surik sighed, "I ordered the rest to find something to get us off this planet. Our ship crashed as well", Master Saul nodded. "We just need to get to the Academy and get this over with".

  
"It seems like someone is sending you hordes of assassins", Master Saul disclosed. 

  
"My former Master seems to be eager to see my ending", she agreed. 

  
"We will worry about them, you worry about Traya. I'm sure she will lecture you before engaging in a duel so that will give us plenty of time". 

  
"You definitely know her better than I do". 

  
"If I had, we wouldn't be in this situation", he sneered. 

  
"I guess not. Please be careful", she looked at the two Padawans and both girls smiled at her.

  
"Go". 

  
As she ran to the opposite direction, another bunch of assassins approached them. There were several close calls for Hazel and Sarisa, the latter though trained still couldn't match an assassin, but Master Saul covered for them every time they needed aid and finally killed their assailants. It had been an actual miracle that Master Saul had had the time frame to prevent their deaths and though suspicious, he appreciated it. The girls were safe. 

  
Safety didn't last long of course. More came and this time Master Saul got separated from the children. One of the beasts charged at Hazel as she finished one off and before she could react, the monster rammed her body against a rock. She resisted the impact, a couple of bones might have fractured but she didn't intend to go down without a fight. So as she parried the creature's blows, she distanced herself from her Master until neither of them could see each other. Master Saul tried not to panic but failed miserably. Sarisa hadn't escaped from his sight yet, but he could see how another assassin was carefully isolating her from the spot they had been in. The assassins had noticed the connection among the trio and planned to split them apart. Traya surely had hired clever Dark Siders of the Force.

  
Hazel looked over her shoulder and realised she was being pushed towards another massive stone. A little more closer to it and she might have no room to defend herself. She tried to come up with something to get herself out of this problem but her mind had been fogged by fear and even her lightsaber strokes were clumsy. She had somehow cut one of the creature's legs but it didn't seem to do much to him since he continued moving without difficulty. She had to see another way out of this one or her short life could end in a second. That's when it came to her mind that she could jump. High enough and fast enough to daze the beast. That might actually catch him off guard. If it didn't, though, she could lose half her body or worse, her life. But she gave it a try. 

  
She leapt above the creature, angled her sabre downwards to hit him square in the head, but its other arm slapped her against another rock. Yet again. She shielded herself just in time and prevented any major injuries but it still disorientated her for a second. She scrambled back to her feet and poised her lightsaber to continue the fight, but the monster again lunged at her. Adrenaline cleared her mind and she figured she could stab the sabre on his belly if the monster exposed it enough--and it did. Just as it stretched its clutches to snatch her, she threw her lightsaber right on its belly, and opened a wide gash. It didn't do her actual intention but it did made the creature step back in pain. She decided this was her window. She pushed it with the Force, dodged the swing of its arm, severed it and perforated its already injured belly. The monster dropped alongside its arm. 

  
She shuddered disgusted.

  
"Nicely executed", Sarisa praised.

  
Hazel waved her lightsaber to her but Sarisa deflected it with her own. Both blue beams crashed. 

  
"You scared me!", Hazel squealed. 

  
"Let's move", Sarisa turned off her sabre and carried on. 

  
Sars glided the monster's corpse across to make a path for them and as both walked, the Force rang in warning. Hazel craned her neck to the rock's peak above them but midair, Sarisa gripped him with the Force, pulled him straight to her hand and thrust her lightsaber into the man's stomach. He fell dead beside her and she continued. Hazel sensed something wrong. Her friend was angry. 

  
"What is it, Sarisa?" She casually asked.

  
"What?"

  
"You just butchered that man without blinking an eye. Care to explain?" 

  
"Don't you feel it Hazel?" Sars abruptly spun to her, gesturing the planet's round shape with her arms. "The horror and the death in this place?" Hazel did, of course she did, she wasn't deaf to the Force's moans but she overlooked it. She couldn't let it consume her or the animals could easily turn her into the snack of the day. 

  
"I do, Sars, but we were warned, weren't we?"

  
"I just can't believe a Jedi did this". 

  
Hazel wanted to say_ I told you_ so but she didn't dare. Her friend's temper could be quite hazardous sometimes. She had never tasted it, in fact, she didn't believe Master Saul when he told her about the girl's aggressive mood changes, but as they both brushed their arms in intimate proximity in the very mouth of the dark side of the Force, she certainly sensed her friend's rage. It wasn't misdirected though. She had the excuse to feel that way. She had been on Revan's side when both girls argued about the Mandalorians Wars, but she hadn't really thought about the consequences that it wrought, and this planet made her realise that. The ruins, the lack of vegetation, the everlasting storms, and the echoes of the dead people who perished in this planet gave her a clear picture of the aftermath of the Jedi's intervention in the war. The Republic wouldn't have won without them though, there's no denial in that, but the galaxy paid a high price for it anyway. It continued to pay for it until this very day. 

  
It dawned on Hazel then that her friend was furious at herself, not at the situation. Hazel couldn't blame her. She also had had her fair share of bitter feelings towards the Order for a while, but she got to control them over time. The past is the past, and one could only extract lessons from it and let it go, or live resenting it forever. And that simply wasn't a way to live. She had learnt that in all those years living under the scorching suns of Tatooine. 

  
"We need to focus Sars", Hazel said, "I understand your feelings, my friend, but it will gain you nothing. Take this as a lesson from the Force". 

  
"I should, shouldn't I?"

  
"Yes".

  
Sarisa chuckled darkly.

  
"You're such a good Jedi, Hazel. I don't know how you do it. Your acceptance of the Jedi dogma is something I've always admired about you", she shrugged, "I think living under Master Saul's antipathy for the Jedi Order for so long has influenced me. I simply cannot see their actions without pointing out their flaws". 

  
"He had his reasons". 

  
"Oh he had them alright but it shouldn't have make them my own. Now I have a hard time submitting myself to the Jedi's teachings".

  
"We all make our own paths, Sars. If you could see Master Saul as what it is instead of a father, then maybe it'd be a lot easier for you to let go of his unreasonable hatred towards the Jedi and create your own opinions about the Order", Hazel gasped and bit her tongue. This was not what she was supposed say to comfort her friend. 

  
Sarisa, however, laughed at her friend's reaction and simply nodded at her comment. 

  
"I take your meaning, my friend. I will try to do so", the glimmer in her eyes were honest. She meant every word she said, she didn't just say it to drop the conversation. That pleased Hazel. She smiled at her friend and hooked her arm around Sars' neck. Again she believed their friendship could be the best there is. 

  
After ten minutes strolling, they found Master Saul battling against a Wookie. A massive furry creature that tried to dismember the Master's body. Sarisa and Hazel didn't hesitate. The aura of the Dark Side was impregnated on his presence so he was nothing else but one of Traya's assassins. Sarisa ran to him, distracted the Wookie with her cry, and Hazel sped from behind and slashed his back. Master Saul then cut his head off and the Wookie fell. 

  
"Why, thank you", he panted. 

  
"No problem, Master. Let's get going", Hazel beamed at him.

  
His heart melted a little.

  
"Let's go". 

  
It seemed like Darth Traya got the message that no matter how many more assassins she brought to them, they wouldn't defeat the trio, so the waves stopped and they, at last, reached the Academy. As they stepped inside one of the many wide areas, they encountered another beaten Sith. Unlike Nihilus, his body remained along with his many dreadful injuries. It looked as if someone had carved a map on his body and then decided to play some more with him. His tortured frame disturbed the girls. He had clearly died because of his wounds, yet those weren't made recently, he had them even before his confrontation with the Exile. (Who else would have defeated him but Surik?). Whatever made him like this had succeeded in killing him. The Sith laid there as nothing but a memory. 

  
"Darth Sion", Master Saul named him, "Lord of Pain". 

  
"Certainly seems like he was in a lot of pain", Hazel blurted.

  
"Indeed", agreed Sarisa.

  
"Let's keep moving". 

  
Ahead of them, an arch led to another circular room and from there, the trio could feel Traya's cold presence and Surik's familiar one. Master Saul warned them to be careful with her, she was called the Lord of Betrayal for a reason. He suggested them to _compress_ their Force signatures so that she wouldn't feel them, although evidently, she had already felt them since the moment they crash-landed on the planet, but if they could hide from her at least before they struck or intervened in the battle and catch her by surprise then it was better than nothing. 

  
They concealed behind the arch's pillars and watched. As Master Saul had said, the lecture hadn't finished yet so they had a moment to listen to her. 

  
"Yes...", her tenebrous voice said, "it is all that is left unsaid upon which tragedies are built. Maybe if she had shared more with you or accepted her feelings, her demise wouldn't have come". 

  
Surik seemed to be anchored to the ground, unable to move or even breath. She just stared at her former _Master_ and listened to her without a single protest. She only spoke to continue asking more questions, as if to try and understand Traya's real motives behind her deeds. The trio, lurking on the back, hoped she got what she needed because letting a Sith talk too much can mess with one's head. 

  
"But why?" Surik suddenly sounded winded, "why doing this?"

  
"It is said that the Force has a will, that it has set a destiny for us all", she explained, "I wield the Force, but it uses us all for its own purpose, and that's abhorrent to me. Because I _hate_ the Force. I hate that it control us to achieve some measure of balance, when countless lives are lost due to them." Traya, veiled by her hood, smiled, "but in you... in you I see the potential to see the Force die, to turn away from its will. And that's what pleases me", the terror in Surik could be felt in the very hearts of the trio. "You're beautiful to me, Exile. A dead spot in the Force, an emptiness in which its will might be denied". 

  
"Why using it then? You don't make any sense". 

  
"I use it as I'd use poison, to understand it and learn from it. To find a way to kill it".

  
"You can't destroy the Force any more than you can destroy gravity. You would doom life just for your hatred?"

  
"I do not wish to end life. I want to cut the Force from all living beings, to _erase_ it from existence" Traya hissed. "This is why I couldn't let Nihilus to be. He'd have destroyed the entire galaxy in pursue of his hunger. My goal is to be able to choose freely! Do you think you and I are here together because of coincidence?" She paused a second for her words to sink in and then proceeded, "the Force has arranged this because it is its will. We either obey it or we are annihilated by it. You did not re-established your connection to the Force because you wanted so, the Force did it for you and you let it. As I said, the Force uses us. How many more will die for the prophecy of the balance to be fulfilled? Or is that another excuse to manipulate us?"

  
"I believe you are manipulating us, not the Force". 

  
"I did use you", the Sith confessed, "but even I steered events for something worthwhile. Tell me, where would you be without me? The Republic should thank me that I used you to keep the Lord of the Sith from condemning the galaxy to death with their unchecked power. If I hadn't lured you to Telos, they wouldn't have been defeated. If I hadn't used you to reveal Atris' corruption, her teachings wouldn't have stopped. If I hadn't used you to reveal those who wounded me, the Republic wouldn't have found them and punished them. And most importantly, I used you to gather the Jedi and destroy them". 

  
"What happens now then?"

  
"The apprentice must vanquish the Master. If you do not, I will kill you. If I do not then all you've achieved will be for nothing, as empty and violent as Malachor itself". 

  
"Then let us end this". 

  
Their duel began. Master Saul and two girls wanted to enter in the fight, to help Surik, but something stopped them. An invisible barrier that kept them in the dark, away from Traya's sight. The girls tried to disappear the barrier but Master Saul understood Surik's intention and didn't let the girls do anything else. He just told them to continue watching and _learn_. Hazel and Sarisa didn't know how they could learn from this when Surik could die at any moment, because that's the truth of lightsaber duels, a wrong move in a fraction of a second and you were gone, but Master Saul insisted. There was more than met the eyes in their duel and they had to educate themselves from it. 

  
Sooner than expected, the Exile cut the Sith's hand. The girls gasped as loud as Traya's howl of pain. She grabbed her severed hand and coiled in anguish. But she didn't act in rage as most Sith did, she didn't summoned her lightsaber to her healthy hand and continued fighting. She just stared at the Exile and then smiled at her again. A cunning smile. 

  
"Finish this, Surik! Kill me! If you do not kill me, I shall _end_ you", she spoke so confidently, it almost convinced the girls to push the barrier away from them and assist Surik. 

  
Surik's blue beam of plasma retreated to the hilt and Kreia laughed.

  
"I died a long time ago, Exile, now the circle is complete. Strike me down and at last, end this!" More lightsabers ignited and the three of them pointed at Surik. "You have strength but you are yet to learn the full extend of power. You _won't_ show me mercy, Exile, I will break you before you do!"

  
The three sabres charged at her as if they were wielded by invisible hands. They wrestled with Surik, one after the other, seeking to find a weakness, a spot to finally murder her, but Surik was skilled. Hazel hadn't realised how much until she witnessed the woman defending herself from three lethal swords. She thought her abilities paled next to her Master's but she was wrong. Surik was as much of a threat as he was. Deadly and in perfect control of herself. 

  
Traya, though, didn't intend to harm her. She displayed her own competence by _bewitching_ those swords with the Force, yet she only wanted a show for herself. To _train_ the Exile. And that's exactly what she said to Surik after Traya disabled the sabres and returned them to her. 

  
"By killing me here, you have rewarded me more than you could possible know". 

  
"Kreia" Surik clipped her sabre to her belt as well as a sign of peace, "there is still time to save you. Please, let me". 

  
"Save me? You already have. It is enough what you have done, from now into the future"

  
Surik, Master Saul and two girls felt a shiver on their spines. Not just confusion but apprehension. 

  
"Future?" Surik asked. 

  
"Many things I can gaze here, from the heart of Malachor. This place channels such energies...." she hummed. "If it matters to you, at this last moment, I shall look into the future, and tell you of what I see. It is my last gift to you, from one exile to another". 

  
Their curiosity couldn't be refused. Not even Surik backpedalled and pondered about Traya's words, she immediately asked for her friends and the Sith delivered. She told her about the Lost Jedi, their friends, upon which the future of the Order will be built. The foundation that Master Saul talked about it. Then Surik inquired about the Mandalorian's fate and Traya foretold their death. A death that would last millennia, until all that remained was their code and history. In the end, they'd become the shell of the armour they wore, easily slain by the Jedi. So many wars for that outcome. 

  
Surik's intrigued mind didn't stop there. She asked for Revan. The myth that the Jedi and the Republic talked about. Traya, wise as always, replied to her that Revan had gone to fight a war. Not one against the Republic but against something darker, beyond the Outer Rim, that patiently waited for them to later sentence the galaxy into eternal iniquity.

  
"The Sith?" Surik sceptical expression made Traya grin. 

  
"If you think those led by Revan were the Sith, then you are wrong. The Sith is a belief. And its empire, the _true_ Sith Empire, rules elsewhere, and that's where Revan has gone". 

  
"And the droids?" 

  
A far-fetched question for Hazel to be honest, but she knew Surik had interrogated her former Master for a reason. And that reason turned out to be Surik's very destiny. The Exile's astromech droid was to accompany her to the Unknown Regions, to look for Revan in a place where truth Sith waited in the dark, and then she added, for the great war that is to come. That explained Hazel everything. Surik didn't just go there to face Traya, she went there for answers, not of Traya's motives but of her own path. She had planned this and Traya complied. That, again, made Hazel doubt of Surik. What more did she secretly plan? 

  
Then, she asked for The Disciple, which Master Saul identified him as Mical, and Traya predicted the man's sit in the Council. He'd reluctantly take his place as the foundation of the new Jedi Order, yet he would never forget Surik, because, after all, he loved her. And then she warned Surik that she had to leave Mical behind. The path she was destined to walk, the same one Revan still walked, didn't allow attachments. Not for the Jedi's reasons but because it was too dangerous. Dragging their loved ones to such path wasn't a wise decision, they had to do this own their own. 

  
Surik hesitated there, probably flustered by the revelation, but Traya didn't stop there. She was sure that Surik would meet her fate because, according to her, Surik was not a Jedi. Not truly. Jedi were too stained, but Surik wasn't and that was the reason why Traya esteemed her so much to the point of loving her. That's why she chose her as her apprentice and why, in her dying moments, she agreed to divulge every little secret she knew about Surik's friends and the future of the Republic. Because Traya had only one weakness and that was the Exile herself. 

  
As a final gift, Traya willingly prophesied the fall of the Republic. Although many planets would return to their former glory and some peace will be achieved for a while, the galaxy had already been too wounded to fully recover. Thousands of years into the future, a cataclysm would trigger the ending of democracy and the galaxy itself as they knew it. 

  
Traya died in peace with herself. The girls felt her presence soothing itself as she exhaled her last breath and collapsed on the floor. Surik glanced at the Sith's body for a long minute before she decided to turn on her heels and meet the trio still enveloped by the shadows. She seemed quite shaken but she tried to present a calm face. 

  
As they flew away from the Malachor, the rotten planet remained on its feet. Alive with the Force and yet injured. Not a Wound of the Force, but a hole in the fabric of the Force. Something that would continue to haunt the planet for as long as it stand. Traya didn't get to fulfil her desire, instead the planet bubbled with the memories of the war and the souls lost there. It might never recover from the disaster it befell on it but it would endure nonetheless. 

"Is it possible to hate the Force?" Even to Hazel her words sounded naive but it was a legitimately question. After hearing Traya's speech, something inside her began to doubt, and she didn't like that. The Force used them as agents, the Jedi themselves believed that, that they were specks within the Universe even with the power they wielded, but Traya protrayed that principle as something immoral. As if the Force enslaved them for its whims. But that couldn't be, could it? It was impossible. 

"I've no idea, Hazel", Sarisa replied as she gaze at the stars from Hazel's chambers. "I don't know".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I did justice to this. I've always loved this part of the game and honestly, I just like Traya as a character, she's complex and truly interesting. I couldn't delve too much into her though. I'm sorry. 
> 
> I realised this chapter is exceedingly long lol. Forgive my excited self. 
> 
> Anyway thanks for reading this far. Here's my tumblr acc in case you have questions or just to correct my grammatical horrors. Thank you.  
https://walkermin.tumblr.com/


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is an interlude of some sort. After the memories from the spectre's past, this is a pause which Vader appears again and we see a bit of their, I don't know if adventures is the right word but yes something like that. This has some time in between with the prologue in which the memories started. It follows the timeline of the comics so if you read it, you'll notice I've jumped some chapters.   
Also I'm being quite straight forward. About the spectre's intentions and Vader's as well.  
I hope again this does justice to the character of Vader, I've tried to be very careful so I hope you like it.  
***Again this is based on the Marvel Comics of Vader. Namely Vader Down and the crossover with the Star Wars 2015 series and then the prelude of issue #50 of Star Wars.  
This chapter I think is seriously long... I can't even tell anymore, I've spent so much editing here and there that my brain has stopped all activity.  
Anyway I hope you enjoy this, thank you for reading this.

For someone who despised Tatooine so much and promised never to return to that dustball, Vader had certainly returned there too many times for his taste. First to deal with the Hut, then to find a decent bounty hunter and learn more about the Force-Sensitive pilot, and now.... to track down his own son. His son. 

  
The coldness of his presence dropped almost to the icy temperature of Orto Plutonia, after his spontaneous audience with his Master on Cylo's research base. The storm in his mind became more turbulent, to the point that he had to lower his shields in order to let his rage run free. It'd have destroyed the entire ship he stood in if it wasn't for Boba Fett. The latter had finally discovered something and not even his Master’s offensive accusations could dampen his interest in the matter. 

  
"I lost him", said Fett as he entered. Well, so much for this. 

  
"That's most disappointing", Vader replied, staring at the constellation of stars from the viewport. When some random echoes of the spectre's Psychometry stubbornly reappeared in his head, the only way to get rid of them was through meditation. A brief one normally sufficed. He put that to the test in that moment as well. The Dark Side of the Force could be quite _murderous_ if not properly harnessed and he didn’t want to end the bounty hunter's life. He might still have some fruits to give. 

  
"He got lucky", Fett said sternly 

  
His meditation also soothed his temper to a mild one. It didn’t just seized his anger to prevent it to lash out but also reduced it. The spectre pointed that out and he found that sort of amusing because as soon as both realised the truth to her suspicion, she insisted he meditated every hour of the day. He obviously didn't heed her ridiculous advise but it made him smile. Even a spectre, half-dead, felt intimidated by him. He found that amusing. 

  
Therefore, as the bounty hunter retold his failures, he only listened. He didn’t dismissed him as soon as he announced his little advance, instead he paid attention as he explained about the boy who had apparently fought his way out of Fett's clutches. That intrigued him. He already thought he had been too hasty to rebuff the kid’s talents, Fett's story further confirmed it.

  
“Anything of value?” He asked. 

  
“Just his name, “Skywalker”.

  
Immediately, the memories flooded his mind. The short-lived happiness he felt at the news of her pregnancy. His Master’s deliberate lie as he heard for the first time his new voice. The strong unrestrained Force racing inside the pilot at the battle over the Death Star. The grown child of hers duelling him in Cymoon1---He had had the boy right in front of him quite the number of times already and he had never noted their connection. The Force did his part and used the spectre as an intermediary by showing him the echoes of his lightsaber, yet he spurned the hint.

  
He had his son alive all this time and he had been utterly clueless. His wrath targeted _him_. He, himself, held so much power, not only the one coursing through his veins, but his influence over the Empire and yet, he never noticed the one most important thing; his son. 

  
"Maybe you avoided it, Lord Vader" The spectre reasoned. As he carried on with his duties, he found a moment alone with her and he addressed this to her. "He was part of a closed chapter of your life. I believed you buried it so deep, you didn't dare to open it.... Until now”.

  
Her deduction had been precise and correct. As he stared at the Lars' abandoned house standing like a skeleton in the desert, he validated her words. Of course, if he had known about the boy before he wouldn’t have hesitated to claim him but that didn’t diminish what was previously stated. 

  
"This place is dead", Dr. Aphra observed as she peeked into the interior of the house, "there's no one nor anything inside. What are we looking for?"

  
"The boy who destroyed the Death Star lived here", he clarified. "He left after his family was slain". 

  
"Oh"

  
He shot a glance at the spectre beside him, who gazed at the horizon, and ushered Aphra inside. The spirit looked quite distraught. Her eyes appeared to be scanning every square inch of the planet as if to absorb every little detail she had forgotten about it. She clearly had never returned and she had just realised how much she missed her homeplanet. Perhaps her mind even journeyed back to her first encounter with her friend and her Master. This place carried many memories, and not just for Vader, but for the spectre as well. 

  
"There must be a trace of his presence in the house", he said to the spectre, bursting her bubble. She immediately nodded. 

  
"Let's get to it then". 

  
She tried to conceal her tears but the sniffing didn't help. Vader turned a blind eye. 

  
"I'm fine", she sniffled again, "it's just been so long and so much has changed... The galaxy has evolved and I'm still here. Frozen in time". 

  
He made no answer.

  
Upon entering the homestead, he observed for the first time the wreckage the Imperials had done to the property. The residence had been rendered into nothing more than a ghostly silhouette of its previous life. Blaster bolts had scorched the walls, objects had been cast onto the floor in a haphazard fashion, droids had been dismantled---nothing remained. Through the skylight ceiling, the wind whistled memories of his youth. The morning he met the very couple he later ordered to kill. The man who claimed to be his mother's husband. The afternoon he brought his mother's corpse from the Tusken camps. Her funeral. His indignation. His vow of revenge. The woman who stood by his side. It all crossed before his eyes briefly as he inspected around. He hated this house, but he did it for the boy who used to call this place a home. 

  
He tried to sense the boy's presence, perhaps a shadow of his life etched on a wall where he could feel him, but he found nothing. Just like the warmth of its past inhabitants, the child's presence hadn't lingered. He took everything with him the second he decided to leave. 

  
"Give me your hand, Lord Vader, it's time for you to meet your son", the spectre said. He forgot about her for a second. 

  
She signalled a random spot on the wall and he put his hand against it. The concrete underneath his glove began to buzz, it came to life. She rested hers on top of his and squeezed it. 

  
"Take a deep breath, this will be a lot longer than our prior vision". 

  
He should have obeyed her. The memories flared to life immediately. It dragged his mind to a twilight in Tatooine, at the porch of the Lars' homestead, where a young Obi-Wan handed a baby to Beru. She smiled at him, almost grateful, and then headed to her husband, who admired the binary sunset at the top of a dune, and presented the child to him. He spoke quietly to her first, then turned to Obi-Wan.

  
"Don't meddle in the boy's life, do you understand? I don't want you to interfere", he almost spat his words, but the Jedi understood and accepted the man's conditions. 

  
He left and Owen returned to his wife and the baby. The couple smiled at the newest member of the family and the image faded. 

  
From then on, the memories became a blur of quick transitions from one to the other. Each of them displaying the rapid growth of the child. The boy's mischievous personality often got him into trouble and scored him Owen's hard reprimands, but his innocent eyes never lost its spark. His tiny self ran around the house and the farms, always in the brightest mood and featuring his most charming smile. Born with the liberty to lead a regular life, he enjoyed a true life of peace and contentment. To substantiate that, the Force abruptly halted the memories in a single frame, guiding the spectators to the middle of a vast arid panorama, where the child sat on the sand quietly playing with a toy. If he had been born a slave, this gesture wouldn't be possible, but he was truly happy. It irradiated from him as strongly as Vader's presence in the Force. This frozen moment should have been a tempting offer to him. A moment to approach his son and have a better glimpse of him, but he didn't dare. He remained far behind, observing him just like Obi-Wan did all those years. 

  
On the other hand, the spectre had nothing to lose so she went to him, but Vader, immediately, grasped her arm so tight, a couple of veins probably popped. 

  
"Do not give another step", he warned. 

  
The child then lifted his head and landed his eyes on the tall figure and the small woman. For a second it seemed as if he had actually seen them, his blue eyes flickered curiously and he hummed as if regarding their presence, but then they heard Beru's voice calling for him. He smiled and, at once, jumped to his feet, ready to go. His aunt held his hand and both disappeared. 

  
"Shall we?" The spectre asked "We're not done yet". 

  
Threading the past scene, the Force sketched Anchorhead. Aunt Beru and the child sauntered through crowded streets, as she busied herself buying and the boy trailed behind her. Just then, Luke spotted a holocaster in one of the stalls. Landscapes of forests and beaches were being broadcasted on the HoloNet, and it instantly lured Luke. Dragging his aunt along, he joined the group of children gathered around the stall. Needless to say, neither of the them had ever seen so much green or water before, it awed them. But then the kids began to call their adults mother and Luke got confused. He looked at Beru for explanation but instead his eyes reflected the rue expression of his aunt. 

  
Next memory, the boy sat in front of his uncle and aunt as both explained him the truth about his parents. His mother died after childbirth and his father in an accident soon after he was born. The child, right then, broke into tears. Owen and Beru comforted him, caressed his hair to sooth his pain but something changed in Luke after that. The succeeding memories proved it. His sunshine personality didn't change though, he remained to be the personification of both suns in Tatooine but he had became more daring, more bold. 

  
In one of those memories, as he played outside, a band of Gamorreans tried to assault him. Obi-Wan came to the rescue but the child didn't just watch helpless. As soon as he realised the Jedi had been outnumbered, he threw his miniature starfighter at one of the bandits to distract them and give Obi-Wan enough time to position himself better and charge again. He risked his life but he spared Obi-Wan's from the Gamorreans. Uncle Owen punched Obi-Wan for intervening though, Vader approved. 

  
In another occasion, as the slivers of light melted into the complete darkness of the night, Luke stood up against people, who Vader recognised as Jabba's men, that demanded him to pay the water tax. But the child, stubborn as ever, refused and instead insisted they returned the water to the other farmers. Jabba's goons almost attacked him but Obi-Wan again appeared to save the day and safely returned him home where aunt Beru received them, alarm visible in her tired eyes. 

  
Luke's bravery carried on blossoming as the boy himself aged. His daring personality became a matter of persistent arguments between him and his uncle and it soured the relationship among the three. Owen's endless chastises due to Luke's dangerous escapades(not to mention his love for flying that wicked skyhopper), Beru's defensive stance towards Luke and Luke's own complains about their restrictive inclination. Uncle Owen wanted to snuff out the flames that furnished his veins but it was impossible. 

  
_You cannot tame a Skywalker_, the spectre thought. 

  
"He has too much of his father", Aunt Beru said to her husband a certain night after Luke fled the house to try and climb a canyon. He fell into a cave, disturbing a krayt dragon and other creatures his uncle didn't dare to ask about. Luckily, he got out alive but that just drew the line to his guardians' patience. Especially Uncle Owen that disabled the boy's skyhopper in a fit of rage. 

  
Owen, exhausted, sat at the edge of his bed and sighed again. 

  
"That's what I'm afraid of", he responded.

  
That made Vader pulled the spectre and himself out of the unfinished string of memories. The pulses of the Force echoes zapped him as he tried to cut the connection but he didn't react at the pain. He probably didn't even feel it. He stared at the spot the memories came from for a second and then glared at the spectre. The intensity of his gaze almost lit her on fire. He turned to the dusty vaporators in the middle and positioned himself there as he surveyed around, this time replaying the memories of the child in the current state of the house. An ominous sensation snaked through the Force as he did so. Things began to rattle around them and Aphra stiffened in fright. The spectre regretted her decision. The hurricane flourishing from his core contained hatred beyond her understanding. It crawled desperately to the surface, seeking to lay waste to everything, to devastate the last standing columns of the house and destroy the last piece of evidence of the Lars' existence---Vader was enraged. 

  
Enraged at Obi-Wan for giving away his only son to a couple who had no right to claim him. Enraged that the couple had accepted the responsibility to raise him when such burden should have fallen on his shoulders. Enraged that the Jedi, of all people, had decided Luke's fate, when he should've been the one to do so. They all robbed him of the opportunity of educating his son, of training him in the Force and of being a parent to him. They robbed him of the chance of being able to look into his son's eyes and see the reflection of a father rather than a stranger's. His son should have been under his care since his birth, yet now, he had to scrape for information, for memories of his son's life when he was entitled to have been involved in them since the very beginning. That made him furious. That made him wish he could revive the people involved in Luke's childhood only to torture them to their deaths and repeat the cycle again and again. 

  
The Sith's capacity for hatred terrorised the spectre. She had been target of this loath before so she understood the implications and the danger it'd have posed on the victims if they had been alive, and it drained the blood from her face. For the first time, she felt relieved that Obi-Wan, the Jedi and the Lars were dead. 

  
"Lord---".

  
"Let us move on", he motioned both women to move and the pair obeyed. 

  
They boarded Dr. Aphra's ship again to travel to their next destination. Obi-Wan's house. It didn't take them long to get there and once they reached the place, he ordered Aphra to stay behind while he investigated the scene. The spectre trailed him. The house was another mess, even more neglected than the previous one and bearing the recent scars of a battle. As the bounty hunter said, the boy fended him off and managed to escape. He had almost no training but the Force was strong in him, it helped him even when he could barely perceived it. 

  
"Do you want to see it?" The spectre asked him, gesturing at the mark the boy's lightsaber left on the wall. 

  
"No", he could see the fight unfolding before his eyes without any assist. They had left enough evidence for his eyes to reanimate the entire duel. "But tell me, did he take something from here?" 

  
She placed her hand on the wall and closed her eyes. Her presence in the Force vibrated as she plunged into the memories. After a moment, she replied.

  
"A journal". 

  
"Obi-Wan's", he didn't need to ask. 

  
She nodded. 

  
For a fraction of a second, he hesitated. He wanted to enter further into the house and see with his own eyes the place the spectre showed him in his previous lightsaber's memories, but he couldn't endure Obi-Wan's presence either. The latter had lived for so long there that every object in the house was impregnated with his presence, almost bringing the old master to life. If he concentrated on the old Jedi's signature, he could see him. Obi-Wan's death didn't give him the satisfaction he thought it'd bring, instead if dug another void in him, so feeling the Jedi shimmering on the walls of his house made it worse. It seemed as if he couldn't get rid of him. He was everywhere. 

  
"I'm done, let's go". He turned on his heels, and as they headed out, the house toppled right behind them. Dust billowed up, debris scattered, but none reached either of them. She stopped abruptly and stared aghast at the collapsed house engulfed by dust. She also sensed the Jedi's presence in the house and she actually felt it refreshing, especially after spending so much time with a Sith's oppressive presence, but in a blink of an eye, the Jedi's signature evaporated. "Get going, spectre, do not waste my time". 

  
She sighed and followed him inside the ship. Aphra, perceptive as always, didn't ask and immediately started the engines of the ship. In no time, they were out of Tatooine. 

***  
"So", she sat on the expensive leather chair and crossed her arms on top of the communication panel, careful not to press the wrong button, "where is he?" 

  
"Vroga Vas", the Sith replied. "Where are you?" A hint of suspicion in his voice. 

  
"Er", she glanced around and pursed her lips. Vader's mediation chamber was the only place she could be in her physical form and feel comfortable. No one dared to enter Vader's chamber despite being in the main corridor of the cruiser nor spy the private communication channels of the Sith's. It was a safe place to reveal her real appearance without alerting anybody. And the oxygen injected from the floor made it perfect for her to survive despite the closed environment. It did feel a bit claustrophobic though, she was trapped inside a capsule after all, but then again, no one bothered her in there. 

  
"I don't recall giving you permission to get comfortable, spectre".

  
She didn't dare to answer. 

  
"Can you sense him there?" He asked and she sighed relieved. He'd problaby behead her later though. 

  
She closed her eyes and reached out. Luke was a star hard to miss in the Force, he should be easy to locate. However, as she probed for him in the Force, she encountered with nothing but faints specks of life inside and on the surface of the planet, and the ghosts of the ruined temple jammed her senses to further investigate. It puzzled her. Was someone shielding his presence or was the temple masking his light? 

  
"I can't", she murmured, "I think there's a rebel base hidden there besides the temple, but I can't sense him...Unless", her eyes widened. 

  
"Unless what?" He hissed impatiently.

  
"I think Obi-Wan is shielding his presence", she spoke quickly, "your son is still untrained, he couldn't possibly conceal himself. Someone else is doing it for him and there's no other one but Obi-Wan who could do such thing".

  
Vader's fury encased his chamber and immediately, clogged the oxygen tubes on the floor. One by one, they rupture underneath her sit as the arm hanging from the ceiling dangerously dangle. Terror clutched her. This could alert everyone on the cruiser. She fought against Vader's presence, trying to subdue the destruction of his chamber, but then the walls began to dent rendering her efforts futile. 

  
"Vader!" He didn't respond. "Damn it, Vader, control yourself!" His presence rippled the Force almost painfully but the tremors stopped. She heaved a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry", she sat again and hunched, suddenly tired.

  
"How long has he been doing this?" He clearly couldn't care less about his meditation chamber.

  
"Well since you killed him in the Death Star. He follows the child but---" Obi-Wan didn't want Vader to find Luke. That had just been made clear to her. He didn't appear to the boy unless Vader targeted him. Before Vader brought the chamber down on her, she spoke, "I think he appears to your son only when you are around. He was there on Yavin, on Cymoon 1, and---"

  
"He is keeping Skywalker away from me". Once again he wished he could revive the old Master and kill him for the second time in the most creative way possible. 

  
"Please don't take it out on your meditation chamber, I'm not an engineer", she pleaded. 

  
If it wasn't for her resourcefulness and her sharp senses in the Force, he'd have compressed the chamber with her in it, but he retreated his presence's tendrils from the cruiser and left her alone. He had been guarding his personal quarters since she arrived, particularly to keep people out of there, but it didn't quite turn out as he expected. 

  
"Make sure he doesn't get near my son, spectre. Use your talents", he sneered. 

  
"What?" She asked scandalised, "Lord Vader, I can't be seen----"

  
"Dropping out of hyperspace now", he announced. 

  
"Vader, I---"

  
"They weren't expecting me", he interrupted her, his tone a tad pleased. The spectre scowled, bemused. "You were right. The rebels are here".

  
The specks of light in the Force she spoke about before. Non-Force-sensitive people are barely dots in the fabric of the Force, and unless there is a considerable amount of them converged in one place, they are almost imperceptible to Force-Users, but she did feel them. Vader again confirmed the spectre's power. It impressed him. He didn't sense them until he saw them in front of him.

  
"Luke is there then".

  
"I can sense him", he agreed. 

  
"Would this be a bad time to tell you that I think one of the Imperial agents is spying on you? I spotted a probe droid on Anthan". 

  
"Did you destroy it?"

  
"No. I thought it'd be best to trace its source". 

  
"Wise", he praised her, "I can count on Commander Karbin's presence then".

  
The Mon Calamari cyborg was assigned by the Emperor to bring in Skywalker. He seemed overly enthusiastic and clearly had hostile intentions, so there was no doubt that Vader wanted to get rid of him. He had the obligation to do so actually, since the Emperor had turned this situation into an rodeo. The galaxy was the arena and Vader the main contender whose job was to eliminate his competition. The Sith could attend to the rules for the others' sake, but not for the Mon Calamari's. He wrote his fate on stone the second he decided to go after Vader's son. 

  
Just then, the Force rang in warning. The spectre barely had a fraction of a second to slip back to the Force when a loud clang burst into tongues of flames. An X-Wing went right through the fire and debris, be damned the other rebels screaming at the pilot to veer off, and dashed directly into Vader's fighter. A turbid sensation washed over her, and as the suicide X-Wing neared the Sith's TIE, both him and the spectre recognised the only bold presence in the Force.

  
"Wait, I sense---"

  
"LUKE!" The spectre's alert came too late and the boy crashed the ship's wings precisely on the center of the TIE. 

  
On the vacuum of space, the noise of the explosion was muted, only the alarms blaring on both fighters could translate the danger of the situation, apart from Artoo's continuous shrieks. She couldn't believe she didn't notice the iconic droid cheering Luke's stupid decision. Only Artoo could be mad enough to agree to ram the ship into Vader's. Fortunately, father and son were excellent pilots. A crash like this couldn't end them. 

  
"Those are your genes acting on Luke, Vader", the spectre observed. 

  
Vader's fighter spiralled planet-ward, dropping at immense speed, but that didn't hinder his senses at all nor stopped him from glaring at the spectre. She returned to the fabric of the Force and reached land before they did. She stood inches away from the point of impact and in no time, the TIE plummeted on the same exact spot. As Vader got out, his glower intensified. If rebels bombers weren't inbound she'd have smiled, but it wasn't the appropriate time so she refrained herself.

  
"Make sure no harm comes to the boy. I'll deal with the rebels". To cement his point, he hurled the rubble of his fighter at the bombers at such speed it perforated two vessels in half, while the other couple collided one another. The pilots tried to swerve but Vader forced them both on collision course, and in a second, the rebels on the sky were wiped out. 

  
"Is it too late to suggest that you fling your son to your shoulder and escape this galaxy?" 

  
"I'm a Sith Lord, spectre", he shifted to the direction of the temple. He felt it better than before and understood his companion's difficulty to pinpoint his son, "I don't run", as a touch of dramatic, the bombers' debris fell behind them and once again, it exploded. 

  
She sighed. All right, that was it then. 

  
Vader delivered of course. People surrounded him and yet he came out unscathed. She couldn't see very well from afar since she had to ghost the child, but she could definitely tell the rebels were losing despite the fact that the Sith was outnumbered. She had seen him in action before, many times, just slaughtering people and barely sustaining wounds himself, but this time it truly was amazing. Although his disregard for his inhumane acts disturbed the spectre, she had to admit his strength was unparalleled. 

  
As predicted, Commander Karbin showed up. His presence, though not welcomed, was unexpectedly convenient. His intrusion spared Princess Leia, who had encountered the Sith for the second time face-to-face, from certain death. The spectre almost abandoned Luke for his sister, but the cyborg played his part to distract Vader and Leia ran away. They duelled, and, in no time, it became obvious the Mon Calamari was no match to him. Instead he consumed time Vader didn't have, so he resorted to his last option. The spectre had forgotten about Dr. Aphra until her ship nosedived into the Imperial and squashed him like a bug. That ought to solve the problem indeed. 

  
After the long ordeal, the rebels managed to flee and Aphra with them. The trio on the Millennium Falcon celebrated the possession of Vader's personal agent, but alas, they added another burden to the Sith. He didn't even get to see his son in person. 

  
On Coruscant, Vader met again with his master. The spectre stayed on the cruiser, attempting to fix Vader's meditation chamber, so the Sith for the second time went on his own, but not empty-handed. He tossed the remains of the cyborg on the floor and then looked at his master in defiance. The Sith Master's eyes flared in furore at the lightsaber slashes on the corpse but Vader rebutted the argument. He asked Vader to prove himself so there it was, the proof of his victory. The Emperor conceded his claim and carried on explaining him about his next assignment. And so Vader went to Shu-Torun and its Queen Trios. 

  
On board on the cruiser, Vader helped the spectre fix his chamber and once done, he entered on the capsule and kicked her out of there. Resigned, she went to Shu-Torun. She had been there before and she didn't really like it. So much wealth and such corrupted people---not her interest. The Force, though, had never been disturbed in such place, at least prior to Vader's involvement. However, as she arrived something rattled the Force. Not a presence but an event. She closed her eyes and drifted into the Force, letting herself be swept along. That's when the visions started. A humanoid, with implants and what looked to be a droid's eye on the right socket with Rodian skin around it, appeared next to Grand General Tagge. She couldn't hear their conversation, but then the image changed to a circular room, where the holograms of several leaders sat on their high chairs.

  
_Sorcery_, one said, _I brought the expert_, another spoke to the concerned crowd. Then Cylo's hologrom blinked to life. 

  
The spectre gasped and she immediately returned to the cruiser. She thought on knocking, probably Vader had taken off his mask and helmet, and she didn't want to die before the appropriate time, so she had to knock but before she did so, Vader's presence nudged her inside. She went through the wall and entered the capsule. Vader had his helmet on and seemed almost relaxed.

  
"I'm sorry to barge in like this, Lord Vader, but I think we have a situation". 

  
"How serious?"

  
"I don't know if serious but you'll definitely have what you wanted".

  
"Get to the point". 

  
"Cylo, Lord Vader, I think he's going to betray the Empire. I went to Shu-Torun and something fell wrong. So I meditated for a second and I had visions of this familiar humanoid talking to the Dukes. And I also believe he is in league with Grand General Tagge. This is why the Emperor insisted you to drag the man with you". 

  
"If what you say it's true, then I'm not dragging a man, I'm dragging a coward and a traitor".

  
"But that means you're free to finish both of them".

  
"I'll speak to my Master about this, but let's things unfold first. They must expose themselves". 

  
"Of course". 

  
"Well done, spectre, you're indeed useful as the Emperor predicted". 

  
"How about a raise, Lord Vader?" She could see the Sith's anger melting his mask. She chuckled. He did have his sense of humour, he just didn't want to indulge her. 

  
Shu-Torun turned out to be more _thrilling_ than she expected. Not only did the Queen trios live up to her name, but the very Imperial agents added character to the war. Namely, the twins. Their childish play cost their lives but one of them provided Vader with the evidence of Cylo's betrayal just as the spectre had seen in her vision. Perfectly set for him, Vader ended the war and hunted Cylo down. He returned to his Master again but to his surprise, Aphra, who had been recovered by a nosy Imperial Inspector that Vader put down, spilled half of the secrets she had dug for Vader, including the theft and so on to the Emperor. She fortunately didn't mention Luke but she did say enough for Vader to reconsider his trust on the girl and throw her out of the Executor. The Emperor, though, rejoiced on Vader's personal agenda and congratulated him for walking in the shadows. He had done what all Sith should do at some point of their training. Vader accepted the compliment and reigned his title once again. 

  
Before Vader departed to his other missions, his Master called him for a final more important meeting. Since the spectre had become an expert on Vader chamber's properties and structure, she helped the Imperials install it on the Executor, meanwhile, Vader reunited with this Master. As always she stayed behind. Vader arrived to the designated place and the Emperor instantly ordered his Royal Guards and Mara Jade to leave them. They moved further into a more private setting and then the Emperor began. 

  
"I first sensed a disturbance in your presence in Mustafar and, recently, after the Battle of Yavin. And it worried me", he said", the Dark Side is too powerful, my apprentice. In the past, the Sith warred amongst each other because we couldn't stand a regimented order, so Revan's insight helped Darth Bane to construct the Rule of Two. One Master, One Apprentice. Nothing more. It worked like this for generations---generations building to me. I restored the Sith to their rightful place in the galaxy and all I needed was a worthy apprentice to create this age with me. And we did so Lord Vader, the Jedi were eliminated, all weakness was purged, but then Mustafar happened. Your failure jeopardised everything. There couldn't be an Empire without Darth Vader. So I turned to brilliant scientists to help me rebuilt you. Cylo among them. He grew powerful but I couldn't get rid of him. I had to make him overplay his hand. And he did. After the disaster in Yavin, he came to me with a plan and presented to me your better replacements. So I let him place his copies along your way, and I placed one of my own as well". 

  
"The spectre", Vader said.

  
"The disturbance in your presence isn't something I took lightly, Lord Vader. You could frustrate Cylo's intents, but not mine's. So I sent the spectre to you in order to evaluate your response to her memories and her conflicted presence. But you never wavered. You didn't only eliminated the other replacements but you proved yourself to be committed. Do you understand, Vader?"

  
So the spectre started the memories from her training as a Jedi to see if she could tug at the non-existent light inside of him. To test him as the Emperor said. Vader balled his fists, that was absolutely unnecessary and insulting. He understood Cylo's toys, he did fail his Master at the Battle of Yavin and he knew the destruction of the Death Star wasn't just a skirmish he could initiate again and win, he got the gist, but to derogate Vader thinking that he had light inside of him? If he felt the pull of the light every time a mission went south, he wouldn't be standing before his Master. 

  
"I do understand", Vader replied, "but it matters not. The Dark Side is strength and I am that strength. Nothing will change that". 

  
"You are, Vader, and I'm sure nothing will stop you anymore". 

  
Silence settled in the room, apart from Vader's respirator. His master seemed eager to hear more of Vader but he wasn't going to grace his master's accusation with an answer. A long time ago, his master insinuated the same _worry_ about Vader's light, and he clarified the situation. He told his master clear as water that there was no regret, nor light inside him, that he donned his armour because he was destined to it, and yet here they were again, arguing about it. It infuriated him. He could deal with Cylo's horrors but he couldn't endure his Master's belittlement.

  
Then, his Master's face split into a smile. 

  
"Do not target your anger to the spectre, Lord Vader, she was sent to you at my behest". 

  
Vader decided to play along. 

  
"Her presence is pointless Master, her teachings cannot instruct me anything". Both Sith were fully aware that Psychometry isn't something you learn, but something you are born with. This is why Vader let the spectre linger by his side, to figure out her real intentions. 

  
"And yet you let her, didn't you? Why?" The Emperor inquired. 

  
"I wanted to test her too", Vader admitted. 

  
"See, Lord Vader? We are merely making sure where loyalty lies". 

  
That didn't diminish Vader's anger, but it did clarify his Master's intentions. Still, he didn't answer and waited for Sidious to speak again.

  
"She isn't just a test for you to pass, Lord Vader", the Emperor said. "She's more than you think".  
The Emperor give him a moment to wake Vader's curiosity, but the Sith was so furious he couldn't feel anything beyond anger. The Master carried on nonetheless. 

  
"I found the spectre in exile. Hiding in the Unknown Regions, punishing herself from failing". Failing? Vader tilted his head hesitantly. "She's a relic of the Old Republic, Lord Vader, just as you became a relic of the Force", he continued. "She comes from an era long lone, carrying the secrets of multiple generations. She has seen the Sith and the Jedi rise and fall for over centuries, she has been ocular witness of their wars and their might clashing against one another", he crossed his arms and again smiled, "and somehow, she has managed to harness both sides, Lord Vader. You felt it, didn't you? Her _grey_ presence, the light and the dark warring inside of her". 

  
"Yes, Master".

  
"This is why I sent her to you, Lord Vader. As you said such technique cannot be pursued, but she was so convinced that she could verse you on the subject that I allowed her to do so. And, as I foretold, she began showing you bits of her past to make you understand the nature of the skill. And whether it's plausible or not, we must allow her to reveal her life to you, Lord Vader. Acquire her knowledge. There are many things her past can offer to us and those things can be exploited to our advantage". 

  
"Such us?"

  
"Your ancestry, Lord Vader. She knows more about your bloodline than you can possibly imagine. If we could train another person with the same might in their blood as yours then the rebels stand no chance. The destruction of the Death Star gave the rebels hope but that flame can be snuff out if you have an apprentice". 

  
Palpatine had no intention to replace him anymore, yet he craved for more. Vader simply wasn't enough. An apprentice for Vader would be an interesting concept indeed but he didn't really believe it to be necessary. Twisting the spectre to do their biding might be more than sufficient. The Emperor evidently couldn't stop acquiring more power. Vader tried hard not to think on his son. He was sure that if the Emperor discovered the truth about the boy, he'd forget about this conversation and use the boy instead. But Vader wouldn't let that happen. That child belonged to him and would only be used for _his_ benefit, nor the Emperor's. 

  
"With another member of your bloodline, the spectre's assistance, and that of the Sith that cursed her, the rebels can be ended swiftly", the Emperor had a collected attitude but the excitement in his eyes said otherwise. 

  
At this point, Vader came to the conclusion that this wasn't just about the rebellion. To have four disciples as he had just stated: a possible relative to Vader, a _grey_ Force-user, an ancient Sith, and lastly Vader himself, then definitely Sidious aimed for something greater than the rebels' death. He did mention before he wanted his empire to be eternal, perhaps the four of them were the missing pieces to achieve such goal; but that's what confused Vader, it all went against the Sith's code. His Master based his teachings on Bane's Rule of Two, which was recorded by Revan at the time of the spectre's era, and even if he believed himself to be the exception of the rule, he surely must have seen the danger of gathering too many pupils. Precisely what happened to Darth Traya as the spectre explained him. Darth Sion and Darth Nihilus overthrew their Master, just as Vader planned to do to his Master with his son's aid. If his Master thought he could submit the four of them to his will, then he either was too blind or he had something else under his sleeve. 

  
"Darth Novae", Vader murmured to himself. He had no clue how a deceased Sith could be of use to them but if Lord Mirmin had managed to survive in a mask, then maybe that Sith had found another way to preserve his life. That actually intrigued him, if he had survived then the spectre must know about it. 

  
"Indeed, Vader. The only Sith recorded in galactic history that has cast a curse so strong that even the Will of the Force bent to it". 

  
_The Force has a will, a destiny set for us and I hate that._

  
Vader crossed his arms at the memory of Darth Traya. He found her hatred stupid and groundless, but it was clear that Darth Novae inspired his curse and maybe even his purpose on the old Sith's radical notions. That made Vader doubt the _sanity_ of his master's plan. If this Dark Lord had literally bent the Force as no one else had ever dared to do before, then what made Sidious believe that he could bend that Sith to his will? Not even the Force stopped him, Vader doubted another Sith Master would stop him. 

  
"I'll turn the spectre then, my Master", he slightly bow. His questions could wait. 

  
"Good, my apprentice", he nodded in approval. "Gain her trust. Let her teach you all she wants, let her show you all she wants, and then _unhinge_ her mind. Her abilities are beyond our fleshly condition but she can do us the favour if she becomes our ally. She just needs to feel welcomed Vader. She is attached to you for a reason we do not understand yet, but let's use that to our advantage".

  
"As you wish, my Master".

  
“Go on then, Vader, the galaxy is waiting for you". 

***  
The spectre grabbed the lightsaber and it immediately buzzed at her touch. The soul remained dormant inside the crystal, yet the venom of its wrath and malevolence hadn't dissipated one bit. It flooded the insides of the lightsaber, from the base of the hilt to the very mouth of it. She knew that if she ever activated the sabre, the plasma gate adjacent to the crystal chamber, wouldn't be able to resist the energy pushing through and it'd overheat the weapon, probably destroying it in the process. There simply was too much power inside that lightsaber, and the only thing that kept it insulated from the outside world was the seal she placed on it. 

  
The Force felt offended at Darth Novae's insurgence, and thus, supported the spectre's wish to seal the Sith's soul in the lightsaber. She did not eradicate the Sith as she should have done, but at least, she accomplished something no Jedi did in the past and the Force rewarded her for it. Her connection to the Force wasn't just due to her strange condition, but because the Force itself let her delve deep into its webs in order to fulfil the mission she had been entrusted to do so long ago. Defeat the Sith that cursed her to this life. Darth Novae might have not been as strong as Darth Sidious or even Vader, but the late Sith did something the Force would never forgive and since the spectre didn't have sufficient power to defeat her in the past, the Force gave her a chance to do so again. So here she was, siding with Vader in order to complete that task. 

  
She heard what Sidious said about her, about _unhinging_ her mind. She had to laugh at the Sith's boldness---he had some guts she gave him that; but for better or for worse, she had to do as the Sith commanded. She had hoped that if she offered him her services to move events for his advantage, he'd get greedy, and he did. He didn't just want the Chosen One anymore, he wanted Darth Novae, the spectre herself and Luke (the Emperor thought there was another Skywalker roaming around the galaxy when it was Luke he had felt and seen in his visions. He just didn't realise it yet because Obi-Wan and Vader protected the child, and because the latter's presence was too untrained be considered a threat. At least from a certain point of you. Sidious would realise soon of course, but not yet). So for the spectre it was matter of guiding Vader to the lightsaber, let him destroy her seal, resurrect the suspended soul of Darth Novae in the lightsaber just as his Master had commanded, and she'd freed herself from the curse. Now, Vader wasn't going to let anyone take his place, only Luke had that privilege, so despite his Master's wishes, he'd certainly remove Novae from the picture. And she trusted Vader to do this. The ancient Sith never reached her true potential in the ways of the Dark Side which Vader did, and the Force, though reluctantly, provided for him, so he had the means and the strength to put an end to the other Sith. Just like Cylo's toys, he'd eliminate the competition which included Darth Novae and even the spectre herself. The spectre, of course, counted on it so that she'd be freed from her curse and be able to finally rest in peace. So, once again, it all was matter of Vader taking his place in the Empire and helping him terminate all that stood in his way. Luke could do the rest for her. 

  
_Spectre_, Vader's voice reverberated in her mind and she gasped, dropping the lightsaber.

  
_Oh my Force, how did you do---?_ She almost screamed.

  
_Don't play the fool, spectre, I know you created this link._

  
_Did I?_ She genuinely asked. She certainly could connect to others through bonds, but she didn't intend to make one with Vader. As much as she tolerated the Sith, she didn't need the man's voice in her head every single day.

  
_Well I didn't, Lord Vader, but I can severe it right now if you wish me to,_ she said. 

  
_Do so. But come to Mustafar first, it's time for our lessons to resume. _

  
Oh dear. 

  
_I'll be right there. _

  
His presence left her and she sighed. She picked up the sabre when a sudden blast of light blinded her. Her temples began to pound painfully, and as she staggered backwards, a pair of hands gripped her head. She tried to shake them off but the pressure started as if the hands intended to crush her skull with brute force. She concentrated in the Force and discharged a burst of power from her palms, dropping the sabre and receding the very ache of her head. She blinked befuddled. 

  
She looked at the lightsaber on the ground and her jaw slacked. The sabre had a red aura scintillating around it. She tried to pick it up again but a barrier burst forth from the kyber chamber and repelled her hand. The spectre couldn't help her fascination. This was a very bad, bad sign actually, her seal had weakened which meant she had lost the strength to contain the Sith's soul inside the lightsaber, but it also meant the time had finally come. She always carried the weapon with her, the malice of the contaminated crystal gave her the perfect cover for her grey presence; but despite the proximity to Vader, it had never reacted to his presence before. And now it had. The Sith recognised the bloodline of the younger Sith and, obviously, lusted for his power. The Sith needed Vader as much the spectre needed him. 

  
_I can sense you spectre_, _I thought you'd cut this link_, Vader's vocoder vibrated in her head. 

  
The spectre knelt besides the lightsaber and the red aura immediately agitated at Vader's presence. She never thought she'd see this day. 

  
_Spectre!_

  
She imagined the thread that linked them both, the long string that connected everything in the Force, and then clipped it. A tendril of her presence sliced it in half and Vader vanished. Job done. She examined the sabre once again and found the red aura settled. Reviving, even for that short moment, had worn the soul out, so it had returned to its slumber to recharge itself. The field shielding it had disappeared as well. The lightsaber became once again a weapon and not the vessel of a Sith's soul. 

  
So impressive. 

  
She arrived on Mustafar earlier than Vader, so she toured around the fortress for a while. The fortress, as Obi-Wan's house in Tatooine, had its walls woven with Vader's cold presence and his hatred, so the place always stayed cold despite the hot temperatures outside. The fortress had its own cooling system and Vader couldn't even notice it. Very useful indeed. She continued, in almost a good mood, until she encountered with the Eon machine in the same wide hall Vader put it in the first time. Untouched after so many decades but severely damaged by both Lady Corvac's descendant and Vader himself. The echoes coming from the machine disrupted the Force. Not just because of the memories but for the catastrophe it almost unleashed. Driven by obsession, Vader almost consumed the entire planet only to bring a sliver of his wife back to life. He considered her his lifeline so of course he wasn't going to give up on her, but unfortunately, his inability to let go almost cost the Mustafarians their home planet. 

  
"Did you find what you were looking for, spectre?" 

  
She jumped startled. 

  
"No, Lord Vader, I apologise". 

  
She could see his eyes darting from her to the machine. It wasn't hard to decipher his thoughts. She wasn't present when the entire thing happened but the Sith's presence wailed in such agony after the machine broke that she felt him despite the distance that separated both of them. That was the second time Vader stimulated the Force in such perilous way. 

  
"I didn't mean to intrude", she said.

  
He remained in silence for another minute and then turned around. 

  
"Let's move on". 

  
She spared a last glance at the machine and turned to follow him. Vader couldn't possibly know this but she understood his affliction. If she could go back on time and prevent just one small detail in her life that brought a chain of disastrous reactions not only to her life but to the galaxy as well, she would do it. The consequences of that sole action as she held the title of Grandmaster, of that sole word she gave to the Republic because attachments were beneath her and if she could sacrifice one life for the greater good then that’s how it should be, hunted her. It fell upon her son back then, and it later fell upon Vader as well. Her son's death and the Eon machine were proof of that. Both paid a steep price for her arrogance. 

  
So, in reality, he wasn't alone in his mania to correct his wrongs and to resurrect shadows from the dead. He truly wasn't. As mentioned, she was capable of doing the unspeakable to change the past. If she had had Vader's will power, she'd have done the same with the Eon machine in order to try and bring her son back. But she didn’t have the Sith’s immense will to carry on. She didn’t have the same anger to fuel her life. She didn’t. If she had done what Vader did and failed, the disappointment would have ended her. And _this_ was her punishment for her past decisions. She didn’t deserve to have her son back when she made Vader’s life this miserable. If Vader couldn’t have Padme, then she couldn’t have her son.

  
Vader shot her a look from the corner of his eyes, stretched his presence's tendrils to her, and instantly, her enormous grief and guilt speared through him. Perhaps being on the middle of both sides of the Force and dangling in immortality, made her emotions potentiate. The remorse and the sorrow that ate her alive, and that no meditation could cleanse, were so livid and strong, and yet he never felt overwhelmed by them. The same sensation coursed through him every time she presented memories of her past or his son, but the pain of loss was familiar to him. Maybe regret was foreign but suffering wasn't. 

  
"So”, he said, “I take you heard everything from the _private_ conversation with my Master”. She didn’t reply. “You created the link for that purpose, didn’t you?”

  
If he thought that and still allowed her to do it, then that said enough of his intentions. Even if she hadn’t snooped around the meeting, he intended to tell her anyway. As she expected, he was going to remove the obstacles to his own ruling, including his Master because that’s all he was to him since the beginning, a means to an end, but of course, he needed her help to do so. She was the one with the knowledge as Sidious said. She was the key and Vader concurred but not of his Master’s Empire but his.

  
“It doesn’t seem to bother you Lord Vader”, she said. She actually didn’t create the link for that, she wasn’t even aware of the bond until Vader told her, she assumed she got carried away in one of her meditation sessions and accidentally sew one. 

  
“It doesn't”, he responded. 

  
“You are merciful today”, she remarked. If she had done such intrepid act any other day he’d have crushed her windpipe. Even if she couldn’t actually die, he could take the pleasure of slowly breaking her body. He hadn't done anything of the sort so far, but he had the liberty to do it at any given moment. Surprisingly, he had been patient with her. 

  
“You know the reason behind this and yet you are the one who seems unbothered”.

  
“The ways of the Sith are based on falsehood, betrayal and deceit. I believe a more effective approach is by telling the truth. What would I gain lying to you Lord Vader? You were aware of my personal agenda since the day we met, I think it’s quite clear I never intended to lie to you”.

  
“That remains to be seen, spectre” 

  
“I vowed to myself I’d do anything to help you overcome the Emperor, and I intend to keep my promise”.

  
“In exchange for what?”

  
“My freedom”.

  
He doubted the meaning behind it but then it dawned on him, she didn’t just mean a literal freedom from her curse, but from life itself as well. She had lived for so long, she had gotten tired. A total contrast to the Emperor, who wanted to use the spectre’s immortality to become eternal. He came to the realisation he had never pondered about infinite life either. Since he learnt about his son, he worked to reclaim the realm for him and his son, so that at its proper time, he’d pass everything to his child. He desired for him to sit on the throne, to take the mantle and continue the legacy, but he himself didn’t plan to rule forever. That made him understand the spectre a little. 

  
“You surprise me, spectre”.

  
“I thought it was rather obvious”, she admitted.

  
“Perhaps”.

  
“It shouldn’t be a problem to you, Lord Vader, it’s just process of elimination. I happen to be one of the obstacles that interpose between your and your rule, so there’s only one thing to be done. Clear the path”.

  
Something similar to a laugh fluttered in the Force. She smiled at him.

  
“Anyway, Imperials are on their way”, Vader’s presence that had just softened a touch, sharpened again. She sighed. “They seem quite distressed”, she added.

  
“They never appear to be otherwise”.

  
“The rebels are not easy to catch, even for me. I can navigate the Force but the galaxy is so vast, it’s hard to find them”.

  
“Indeed”, he murmured as he recalled Princess Leia's words at the Death Star. 

  
“I’ll leave you to it then. We can continue our discussion on the cruiser”.

  
“So I won’t be staying then”.

  
“Oh no, you will formulate a brilliant plan in a couple of minutes. You’re always on the move, Lord Vader, this shouldn’t surprise you”.

  
He nodded and she disappeared. 

  
She turned out to be right. Princess Leia came to his mind again and that gave him a perfect idea to find the rebels. To kill hope. He ordered the officers who came to see him to follow the plan he had just formulated and then he boarded the cruiser. The Executor had already course its set so he didn't hover. Just exchange a few words here and there and then, he went to his meditation chamber. Once again, it had the same position as the others cruisers, in the middle of the hall where everybody could enter if they dared and yet no one did. It satisfied him so much to sense the fear of people every time they crossed that area. Most satisfactory indeed.

  
The capsule opened and revealed the spectre inside, she seemed to be meditating as well. He sat down and she opened her eyes. 

  
"Are we going to Sho-Torun?" She asked.

  
"Yes".

  
"Well, see, I'm not that useless as you claim me to be". 

  
Vader ignored her. 

  
"What is step two of your lessons, spectre?"

  
"Let me clarify something first", she said, "I can teach you Psychometry, Lord Vader, it's not going to be easy but it's possible. I didn't realise at first but your son wields the same ability. It's a bit crude, he hasn't developed it yet, but there are things that at his touch, memories are triggered. He can't see them well and sometimes he gets confused, Psychometry is a very emotion-based skill as you now know, but he still has it. And if he does, then that means someone in his family used to have it. Which means you also do".

  
"Why didn't I notice it before?"

  
"Perhaps because you never cared for that ability. I actually didn't have it either, but after I was cursed, I learnt things that shouldn't have been possible, and if I can, I think the most powerful Sith of the galaxy can do it as well, right?"

  
Apparently, he wasn't the only one good at manipulating.

  
"I'll humour you spectre, but teach me something worthwhile". 

  
"You'll only see exactly what you need to see, Lord Vader, besides you still have to obey your Master". 

  
"For now".

  
"Well, bear with me until he's gone then. I won't be around for too long either".

  
"I hope not".

  
"I'm certain I won't".

  
"Go on then". 

  
She retrieved a lightsaber from the same wooden box and placed it his hands. To his surprise, the memories came to life the second he touched the sabre. Excruciating pain mixed with joy screamed from the hilt and he almost dropped it. He clutched the hilt tightly and turned to the spectre. She had crossed her arms and a smile had perched in her lips. She wasn't wrong then, he could actually learn this. 

  
"I sense joy in this", his voice tainted with suspicion. 

  
Her smile turned into a scowl.

  
"Just as the joy you feel every time you inhale air without the need of the suit. It's just a feeling Lord Vader, it doesn't mean a Jedi is involved".

  
"The crystal feels pure, spectre, do not try to deceive me!"

  
"It does because I cleansed it a long time ago. A Force-user once did the same and thus the beam became white". 

  
The image of Ahsoka and his twin lightsabers came to his mind but he brushed it away. 

  
"This lightsaber used to belong to Darth Novae before he fell and before he died".

  
"I'd call it his rise, spectre. And a Jedi is indeed involved then". 

  
She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. 

  
"Yes, before he rose to the Dark Side. It harbours not only his memories as a Jedi, but those events that led to his rise and his ruling afterwards. Now, if you are interest in the power of his curse, this is another piece of the puzzle".

  
"I'll choose the memories this time, spectre, you won't do them for me".

  
"As you wish, Lord Vader".

  
Her gloved hand didn't hesitate to take his hand and both gripped the lightsaber. In both minds, the lightsaber displayed its true nature. Not the pure crystal, but the red one battling with the lightness it had been cleansed with. The hatred and suffering resided in the core of the crystal. Faint but strong enough to please Vader. It immediately pulled Vader into it and he dragged the spectre with him. She had never dared to touch that lightsaber before, it stored too much torment for her, it already was enough with the vessel of the Sith's soul, she didn't need more. So, she had no idea what she would find in there. She only knew the Sith hated her so much, the red glow of the crystal would contain memories of her as well. Maybe even of their shared past. She hoped those memories would show what she wanted Vader to see. 

  
Both submerged into the crystal and the memories flashed to life. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've made so alterations, I don't think they are bold ones to be honest. But yes there they are.  
I will proceed the following chapters with the memories of the lightsaber and then I will add another interlude like this. Now, I'm not planning to make "interludes" too much but if you want to see more of Vader and the spectre, then I don't mind adding more in between memories. We shall see.
> 
> Sidenote: I've been trying to correct the characters in the tags but I can't. Idk why. The Exile is not my main character so she shouldn't be place first but god, I've tried like five times and she keeps reappearing in the same position. If any of you can help me with this. Thanks.
> 
> Anyway thanks for reading this far. Leave your comments down below for any critics. Have a good day!


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